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Landlord Won't Make Repairs

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Christenmt

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

Here is my situation:

Five months into my year long lease, my apartment (and the four other units in the building) transfered owners. These new landlords began updating and remodeling the building-and it desperately needed it.

In my own unit, there were many repairs that needed to be made, most importantly, on the baseboard heaters. The front metal covers of the heaters have fallen off, leaving the hot coils exposed. These are large baseboard heaters too, a good four to five feet long. So, I wrote a two page letter to my landlord requesting that these heaters be fixed or replaced, because otherwise it was an extreme fire hazard.

A month passes, and I hear absolutely nothing. No phone call, no letter response, nothing. So I place a follow up phone call myself, which resulted in the landlord rudely stating they would not fix anything at all. When I asked if I could move into one of the updated apartments, they again refused.

Now, I live in the north and heating is a necessity. It's also against the terms of my lease to leave the heat off between October and May. My lease ends on December 31st, so despite it being July right now, there will be at least three months where I am faced with trying to use heaters that have hot coils exposed. I am almost certain this is a serious violation.

I decided ultimately, after researching tenants rights in my state, that I had reasonable cause to move out. Besides the heaters, there were other repairs that needed to be made, though less serious (holes in doors, leaking toilet, etc). I called my landlord to inform them of my decision and why I made that decision-they threatened to sue and hung up on me.

A week later I wrote an official letter of notice to vacate. A day after I sent the letter off, my landlord calls saying they want to do a walk through of the apartment and see what repairs need to be made. I informed them that I already made arrangements to move because I had been ignored and then rejected the first several times. Again, the landlord threatened to sue and hung up on me.

What I want to know is, am I going to stand a chance in court-if the landlord actually follows through with these threats? I know the landlord is responsible for making major repairs, which include the heating system. In my lease it states the landlord WILL make repairs. Since they have flat out refused so many times, I feel that my reaction was just.

I mean, do I have a leg to stand on or not?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
 


FarmerJ

Senior Member
SO are these heaters ALL electric 220volt heaters where you pay the bill? OR is the building heated with one central hot water boiler ? If the heat is how water boiler the risk of fire is low since boilers are pre set to only run so high and thats it. So at the worst they might look like Crap but should not be a fire haz. Now your attempt to cancel the lease ill bet would not be recieved well by the courts unless you had proof of sending the complaints to the LL like confirmed mail or certified. It would have been to your advantage to contact your city to learn if inspections would have been able to send someone out. ANY true haz they would have forced the LL to repair or make the LL face condemnation eventually. I think if you actually move out you will have weak proof of your complaint since your city inspections desk could determine if your unit is habbitable or not.
 

Christenmt

Junior Member
In Response to Farmer:

My baseboard heaters are electric and in no way correlate to my hot water heater (that to me sounds more like a radiator). They are lined with coils that heat up and turn bright red when you turn on them on. They are essentially space heaters that are wired into the walls.
I also have a city inspector scheduled to come inspect my apartment tomorrow. I feel my fate in this situation depends on his conclusions.
 

FarmerJ

Senior Member
what people call baseboard heat can be either electric Or fed from a central boiler , they both radiate heat into the living spaces, BUT if your heaters are showing orange coils when on this is the best time of year to complain to inspections BECAUSE its summer and there should be little to no wait for the LL to be able to arrange for repair since its not the heating season. This way if the LL refuses to make the repairs and the city ends up condemning, you wont have snow to deal with while moving.
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
The next step if repairs are refused is to call the housing authority, not just up and leave. If they NOW repair the heaters, then you have no cause to break your lease and will lose if they sue you for rent.
 

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