Without heat for 3 days. Illegal?

Consult a Lawyer,you might be able to put the rent in some kind of trust,not to be paid until the heat is restored, I do know that you can’t yourself just hold the rent back,but a Lawyer will know how to do it.

These laws vary by state but normally if the unit is uninhabitable then you are not required to pay rent for those days. Problem is, if you’re still living there it’s hard to prove that it’s uninhabitable.
I would see if they respond on Monday. If they continue to ignore you you may have to contact your local building department but that comes with a warning. If the building department deems it uninhabitable they will condemn it at you will have to find someplace else to stay while the repairs are being done. You will have all the documentation you need to not pay rent while the apartment was uninhabitable.
Most building departments consider heat a habitability issue.
I’ve been in the apartment business since the mid ‘80’s. We always hustle when it comes to heat issues.
One other tip. You may want to go to the hall of records and find out who actually owns the building. If you’re dealing with a management company hired by an owner they might not have any idea that the management company is not living up to their obligations to the residents.
Good luck!

@Judi – Thank you so much!!!

@Judi, do you know whether the tenant is ever responsible for heating their apartment? I mean, if they choose not to heat at all, is that against the law? I realize that it can vary from place to place, but I’ve been looking for regulations about this and haven’t found any (though I assume that if pipes burst, the tenant would be liable).

@glacial, in a rental situation, the concern about the heat being off in a residence boils down to concern about the pipes freezing. As long as the pipes don’t freeze, the owner shouldn’t care.

If he doesn’t fix the heat, stop paying him for heat. Send him a reduced rent check. Include a letter specifying that when he decides to fix the heat, you’ll start paying the full rent again.

In most states, you can put your rent in escrow, and they won’t be able to get it until the issue is fixed. Also, is this a company or an individual you’re renting from? If it’s a company, call them. I’ve had to call the main property office before and complain, and you wouldn’t believe how quickly things get taken care of after having done so.

@glacial Here who pays the heat is dictated by the lease or verbal agreement.

If the pipes burst due to neglecting heat, if there are any then it goes to excessive damage. However people in those situations don’t generally have the money or the responsibility to pay even if a law suit came down on them.

However, the temperature is such that it would make living conditions uninhabitable. The only way a person could burst a pipe due to lack of hearing fuel is if they were gone for a length of time and turned the temp down to low or the furnace didn’t reset. Ie they has no house sitter.

@Unbroken Uninhabitable is a subjective term. :)

@glacial, my experience has been in California so I have never come across that. I think if I owned rentals in freezing areas I would specify the conditions to prevent freezing in the lease.

With respect I disagree when the temp outside is anywhere from 30 to -40 or even on occasion -80 you wouldnt think there was much room for subjective.

Anything cold enough to freeze pipes, eyelashes, nose hair, make fingers and toes numb is uninhabitable. Otherwise the only people effected are the tenants who should have a thermostat even if they don’t have to pay heat.

@Unbroken, who are you disagreeing with? I think the building department would consider it uninhabitable under those circumstances too.
But if it’s 65 degrees and he has a space heater it might not be uninhabitable.

Yes, @Judi, that’s right. We have a rental house in a ski town. We have an agreement with the electric company and with the gas company, that if the renter closes the account, they’ll just send us the bill so the house won’t be without heat.

Ok in this regard 40 degrees at night it probably drops. If it drops 10 degrees its a freeze outside. That is awfully close the building is losing heat if any pipes are underground there are dangers that pipes could drop to the point of freezing without it even freezing when people leave a house vacant then most people will not set the thermostat lower then 50.
And leave water trickling down the drain. Also the furnace is probably instrumental at fueling the water heater. In which case the water is cold. Can be heated up on a stove if there is a bath tub instead of a.shower.

60–65 is generally speaking a normal temp people inside set their thermostat to. 20 degree difference is quite a significant drop for humans. Our core temp is typically 98.6.

However with a space heater there is means to make it livable. Though depending on the space heater there is danger leaving it alone along with the cost of using it. But that is irrelevant I would assume. Inconvenient, yes. How long is the lease? Does it state heating is part of the package in anyway?

Anyway just speculating. Judi you are the expert.

I’ll add that I had an apartment where the heat and electricity were included in the rent. The thermostat was behind a locked plastic box in the hallway outside my apartment. The landlord would keep it at 60 degrees all winter.

To heat the place up I would turn the oven to broil and leave it open. It wasn’t the most efficient way to heat it but it kept me from freezing and I didn’t have to deal with the sky high electric bill.

I managed a building that must have been built by an idiot. It had electric heat and gas stoves. The building had separate electric meters but not separate gas meters. The landlord paid for the gas. A lot of residents used their ovens to heat their apartments. It was such a fire hazard!

Heat is considered utility right?

Copied from Washington’s landlord tenant act:

2. Utility Shut-offs (RCW 59.18.300)

The only reason a landlord can shut off utilities is to make repairs. S/he is not allowed to shut off your utilities because you are behind in rent. S/he cannot shut off utilities to try to force you to move out.

It is also illegal for the landlord to intentionally fail to pay his utility bills in order to turn off the service.

You can take your landlord to court if he shuts off your utilities. If you win, the judge can award you up to $100 for each day it was off.

http://www.washingtonlawhelp.org/resource/your-rights-as-a-tenant-in-washington#_Toc346017632
But turns out the link on it was the one you need. Yes the landlord has to provide heat and hotwater and can only shut down for repairs. You need to write them a letter before you go further and then refer to this.

http://www.washingtonlawhelp.org/resource/tenants-what-to-do-if-your-rental-needs-repai?ref=PPd6T

Utilities are gas, water, and electricity. I don’t think the landlord shut off any utilities, they just have failed to make repairs necessary to render the unit habitable.

That makes sense. But in the second link I posted it spells out that a tenant must provide heat and hot water in Washington at least.

The Landlord Must:

Keep the premises fit for human habitation at all times during the tenancy.

Maintain the premises to comply substantially with all state and local laws that substantially affect your health and safety.

Maintain all structural components (chimney, roof, floors, and so on) in reasonably good repair.

Keep any shared or common areas reasonably clean and safe.

Provide a reasonable program for the control of insects, rodents and other pests, except when infestation is caused by you. (In the case of a single-family residence, the landlord does not have to control infestation that happens after you have moved in.)

Make repairs and arrangements needed to put and keep the premises in as good condition as by law or rental agreement it should have been at the beginning of your tenancy, except where the condition is due to normal wear and tear.

Provide you reasonably adequate locks and give you keys.

Maintain all electrical, plumbing, heating and other facilities and appliances supplied by the landlord.

Maintain the dwelling in a reasonably weather-tight condition.

Provide garbage cans, and arrange for regular removal of waste except in the case of a single-family residence.

Provide facilities adequate to supply heat and water (including hot water) as you reasonably require.

@Unbroken Well, I’ve lived in apartments and not heated all winter. It gets nippy, and a hat and scarf become part of the outfit, but it’s never pipe-freezing cold, because there are other apartments on all sides. So, like I say, it’s subjective. FWIW, I live in Canada.

We pay $40 a month baked into our rent for the oil used to heat the radiators – so it’s technically part of the lease. The fact that he hasn’t even responded in 3 days makes it even more infuriating.

@glacial Ok. Points to you. Canada is higher up then Seattle, but for some reason Montreal for example is significantly warmer then Fairbanks, even White Horse isn’t as bad, or so the residents say. And they roughly close in terms of latitude.

But that was a tangent. I can respect your durability but I say I want no part. Frost bitten fingers toes and ears two winters involving hauling water and outhouses and behemoth of a customized door in a 20×20 cabin with uninsulated floors and windows paired with scads of other stories and just the thought makes me miserable.

@Unbroken That thought makes me miserable, too! I think you get the points. :)

Just so you know @Unbroken, I agree with you, I’m just thinking like a judge and trying to give the OP an honest assessment. If he doesn’t pay his rent because of this he may have a habitability defense but the judge could also say, “you lived there didn’t you? You had a space heater didn’t you?”
I would hope not but dealing with judges is a. crap shoot and it’s always wise to try and resolve it some other way first.
@figbash, did you try all their after hours numbers? I wonder if they would have replied if the building was on fire?

@Judi, A lot of people aren’t wealthy enough to haul themselves off to a motel until the problem is resolved. If you did use a space heater and you had to pay the extra electricity, do you think you’d be allowed to deduct the difference in the electric bill from the rent?

@snowberry , I totally agree with you, I would hope he would be allowed to deduct the difference and then there would be a fight about what the difference was.
I just know that Judges sometimes can’t fathom that someone couldn’t afford a hotel. They have no idea what it’s really like to live paycheck to paycheck to paycheck. Some do, that’s why it’s a crap shoot. That’s why I recommend trying to work it out with the Landlord if you can.
One thing that I didn’t mention that’s really really important.
DOCUMENT EVERY ATTEMPT TO CONTACT THE LANDLORD AND ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU DID TO TRY AND RESOLVE THE SITUATION!!
If you end up in front of a judge you will need it and you will also need it if you end up talking to the supervisor of the person who was assigned to be on call this weekend.

If you want to get your landlord scared (but be careful, it might make them angry) use the term constructive eviction

So, this afternoon – a good 4 days after he was notified (and I had called the parent company) my landlord surfaced.

He alleges that he was here on Saturday to look at the heat (not true) and that he assumed it was fixed so he didn’t write or call anyone back. He states he then came over again last night (not true) and would have made himself known, but it was late and he didn’t want to wake anyone. All told, between myself and the other tenants calls, texts and emails, he had probably been contacted about 25 times over the course of three days. Not once did we receive any response of acknowledgement, “I’m working on it,” or “I was there.”

I just think he came-to this morning and realized he was in trouble.

I asked him for a reimbursement for my space heater and a reduction in next month’s rent for being without heat for 4 days.

He told me he would ‘credit’ my account $65. $50+ tax for the space heater I bought (which I had to buy because of him!!) and $9.50 for pro-rated utilities for the days we were out.

What should I do? Take the offer and shut up, or call total bullshit and demand more? Or, is there a middle ground?

I’d love your advice!

Wait until you get your electric bill and compare it with last year’s bill. Don’t compare the price, compare kilowatt hours used, because prices change. Call your electric company to get them to figure out the difference in cost to you, and even have them put it on their letter head if they are willing. It will look more legitimate to the landlord.

I suppose it depends on how much you want to try to punish the guy, but you could ask him to reimburse you for all the extra trouble and cost you had for those days (phone calls if you have to pay by the minute, gas and wear and tear on the car to go to the store and back to get the space heater, etc.)

But you can also contact all the other tenants and suggest they do the same. Now, THAT would hit him where it hurts.

Did he write down what he offered? Do you get to keep the space heater?
Is the heater fixed now?

How many homeless people are without heat? Think yourself lucky.

Update please?

He apologized but won’t give me more than the $65. In other news, the heat is out again. Ugh.

OK, so what are you going to do about it?