Shutting off Utilities

[roodog]

Here's the situation - I live in a 2 apt. building and share the utilities with another woman in the
basement apt. We rent from the same landlord, who is completely AWOL, lives far away from the property, and is basically nonresponsive to any calls, inquiries, etc...

Here's my problem - the basement renter is cheap and would rather freeze to death than pay a heating bill. The problem is she has access to the master switch for the heating and cooling. So she routinely cuts off the heat and the A/C, even during extreme temperatures. I cannot access her apt. and have engaged in numerous disputes with her over this to no avail.

I want to threaten legal action - does anyone know of a case where this has happened or can give me
advice on how to pressure her to cut this out? Thanks.

 

[JETX]

You have perfect grounds for filing a huge lawsuit, worth several hundred thousand dollars against both her and the landlord!!!! But, this is only allowed in one state, and since you didn't follow the forum directions (see the RED text), we don't know if you have this right or not!!!!

 

[HomeGuru]

And the basement apartment may be illegal in that State.

 

[gottago]

Contact your local city or county code enforcement office. Ask them how you go about filing a complaint against a landlord for failing to provide heat in your unit.

It is your landlord's responsibility to ensure that you are provided with heat. If he/she fails to do so, they can be held responsible by the local city/county. In certain circumstances you could also withhold rent from the landlord.

 

[5geckos]

Have you tried to contact the local governmental regualtion authority regarding either renting or appartments or the utility regualtion agency(s) that might have a say so on how access is permitied or denied to utitlities. Further, contact your local dept of health as I can't immagine it being lawful for someone to deny you access to heating in winter.