Rent Compensation

By Alyssa

It was discovered on 7/18 that we had a major gas leak in my apartment.  The gas company immediately came to shut off the gas, and repairs were unable to be made until the following week.  After the repairs were made, the gas company came back out to turn on the gas, but then found another pipe with 4 more leaks.  The plumber is scheduled for this Wednesday to come repair these new leaks, and we still do not know when the gas company will be able to make it out again to finally turn the gas back on.  We told our landlord that we thought the appropriate thing to do was to deduct each day we have gone without gas from our rent, however, he is unwilling to allow this.  Shouldn’t we be getting some kind of rent deduction for being forced to live in these conditions?  We do not have hot water so no hot showers, no laundry, and without the gas we cannot cook most things.  What is the proper way to address this issue?

Edited on: Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 6:07 am

2 Responses to “Rent Compensation”

My response: (We welcome stories, examples, explanations, answers and a touch of your personality)
 

Scott A.

July 29th, 2008 6:53 am

In my lease agreements I have a clause that covers this type of thing. It states that in events when the unit is non-livable the landlord will be liable for no more than rent abatement. This means that the landlord is responsible for up to the pro-rated rent for the days that were un-occupiable. However, in your case you were still able to live there, the only difference is that it wasn’t too fun. I would suggest doing as the last response said and try to get your landlord to agree to a portion of the daily rent. Another option is to break your lease. Since you were not provided with the basic living ammenities for such a long time, you may be able to say that your landlord breached contract, and therefore you should be able to terminate your agreement early. If you need help with this you can hire and attorney, or file a complaint with the RPA.


Randy

July 29th, 2008 6:47 am

I had a similar issue with my landlord. Except I wasn’t able to live in the unit at all. I had to go the rounds with him before they finally deducted my rent for the days I couldn’t live in the rental. I think you should get some type of deduction, probably not completely, since you were still able to live in the rental during the work.


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