No Hot Water

[rdidio]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York State

My sister called me and told me she got up this morning to no hot water. I told her to call the electricity company to see if it was controlled through them. They said it was not and that she has to contact her landlord. Her landlord does not have a phone and is only reachable by email, and sometimes takes long to respond. There is no maintenance person for her apartment that she is aware of. She also tried knocking on her neighbors' doors to see if they were having the same problem, but no one answered.

I don't know how to help her, so what should she do? Should she wait to see if the LL emails her back? Or maybe contact a maintenance type company to come out and take a look?

Any advice is appreciated! THANK YOU!!!

 

[Gail in Georgia]

Give the landlord a reasonable amount of time to respond.

If the landlord has no phone number and no address, how does your sister get her rent to this person?

Gail

 

[rdidio]

Give the landlord a reasonable amount of time to respond.

If the landlord has no phone number and no address, how does your sister get her rent to this person?

Gail

Thanks, Gail!

I just asked her and she says she mails the rent. I told her she may also want to mail him a letter in addition to the email she sent.

I found the NYS tenant's rights guide, but it didn't say in there how much time the LL should be given to make repairs before the tenant can make repairs and/or deduct rent.

 

[applecruncher]

Did she call the gas company? Strange that the landlord doesn't have a phone. These days everyone has a phone; landlord just doesn't want to be bothered. Suspicious that property owner is only reachable via email and doesn't provide a maintenance number, voice mail, answering service - something.
(If this just happened this morning it's not a drastic emergency yet. Could be something temporary, or maybe a water heater that needs attention.)

 

[BL]

Have her call her nearest code enforcement office .They should be able to have a contact information on the LL and ask them the info. and to contact the LL .

Is this a gas water heater or electric ?

If gas ,the gas Co. could be called to come light it possibly .

If electric ,it could just be a breaker switch needs to be reset .

If there's no response in 2-3 days call the code enforcement again ,as this is a habitability issue .

If necessary after 3-4 days call in for service call to repair and deduct.Only take this course if you're absolutely sure there is no other way to get hot water .

Keep trying your neighbor if they live in the same building and are on the same water heater line.

 

[rdidio]

Thanks everyone!

The hot water heater is gas so I also told her to maybe check to see if the pilot light is out and also try to call the gas company. She's at work for the rest of the day, so she won't know if it's fixed until later. She finally heard from her neighbors who said they were not having problems. It is a 3 story brownstone with an apt on each floor.

She knew the LL was like this going into the rental - they've been there since June. I warned her that it wasn't good to have a nonreachable LL, but they (her and her boyfriend) have friends that also rent from this guy and they never had any issues with having to contact him for anything.

 

[HomeGuru]

Thanks everyone!

The hot water heater is gas so I also told her to maybe check to see if the pilot light is out and also try to call the gas company. She's at work for the rest of the day, so she won't know if it's fixed until later. She finally heard from her neighbors who said they were not having problems. It is a 3 story brownstone with an apt on each floor.

She knew the LL was like this going into the rental - they've been there since June. I warned her that it wasn't good to have a nonreachable LL, but they (her and her boyfriend) have friends that also rent from this guy and they never had any issues with having to contact him for anything.

**A: post back to let us know if it was the pilot or a bad water heater.

 

[rdidio]

Sister and friends checked out the hot water heater in the basement - a few pipes were broken and it was spewing water everywhere. Her boyfriend was able to get ahold of the LL via email and he's coming out sometime today. They believe that the entire hot water heater unit needs to be replaced. My sister says she has no idea how long it will take and they're just stuck with cold water in the meantime.

 

[atomizer]

My sister says she has no idea how long it will take and they're just stuck with cold water in the meantime.

That sounds about right.