can i withhold rent?

[sfdcny]

california -- my air conditioner broke and it took my apt rental company about a week to get it fixed. this was during a heat wave when temps were over 100 degrees all week. can i withhold rent for the inconvenience of having to live in an oven of an apt for a week?

the company sent people out who were not even qualified to fix the air conditioner, so they could not get it fixed. the only reason it finally got fixed was i threatened to call a repair person myself and deduct it from my rent.

thanks for any advice.

 

[Tracey]

Unless you can find a CA law or local ordinance that says ACs have to be fixed in less than 7 days, you have no cause to complain. Call the local tenant's association and ask about repair & deduct remedies, & about whether you can sue for diminution in rental value when repairs take longer than the statutory minimum time. I rather doubt you'll be able to sue for the broken AC, though.

Does your lease specify that L has to provide a working AC & repair it within a certin time? A lease can impose more stringent repair duties on L than statute does, but can't let L take longer to repair than the statutes allow.

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This is not legal advice and you are not my client. Double check everything with your own attorney and your state's laws.