Walk It Through: The Leaky Ceiling
A serious defect, rent escrow after a reasonable time, and notice to end a tenancy.
Water drips through a renter's bedroom ceiling every time it rains, and the landlord does not come to fix it.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One apartment and one leak. Year to year tenancies, the right of redemption, and injunctions after 90 days are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Holding overStaying past the end of the lease or tenancy after proper notice, which leaves the tenant owing the actual damages it caused, never less than the rent apportioned for the period. A month to month tenancy takes 60 days' written notice.
- SpecialtyA judgment, a bond, or a note or contract under seal, on which an action has 12 years from accrual.
- Rent escrowThe tenant's action to pay rent into court over a defect that is a fire hazard or a serious and substantial threat to life, health or safety, once the landlord fails to repair within a reasonable time.
- Right of redemptionAfter a judgment for rent, the tenant's right to keep the home by paying everything the court found due plus costs and fees, at any time before the eviction is actually carried out.