Walk It Through: The Furnace In January
No heat, written notice, a space heater and a motel, a repair demand, and a rent increase after a complaint.
In January, the furnace in a rented house quits, and the landlord does not answer calls.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One rented house. A tenant who caused the problem, a unit condemned by the city, and moving out mid-lease 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.
- Essential servicesRunning water, hot water, heat and the like. Where the landlord deliberately or negligently fails to supply them, the tenant may, after written notice, procure them and deduct the cost, recover damages, or move to substitute housing and owe no rent.
- Fit and habitableThe condition a landlord keeps a rental in: making repairs after notice, substantially complying with housing codes that affect health and safety, and keeping the systems and supplied appliances in good and safe working order.
- Material noncomplianceA breach serious enough to end the agreement. For one by the landlord affecting health and safety, the tenant's written notice ends the agreement at least thirty days after receipt unless it is remedied in fourteen days.
- Security depositMoney a landlord holds against unpaid rent and damage. It may not exceed one month's periodic rent, apart from a pet deposit, and the balance goes back with a written itemization within fourteen days after the tenancy ends.
- Liquidated damagesA sum fixed by law rather than proven loss. A tenant unlawfully removed, excluded, or cut off from an essential service recovers three months' periodic rent as liquidated damages and a reasonable attorney's fee.
- Retaliatory conductA landlord raising the rent, cutting services, or bringing or threatening an action for possession because the tenant complained to a code agency or joined a tenants' union.