bostonasphalt2

my exgf's apartment hasnt had heat or hot water for three days now, and the landlord finally showed up this morning to fix the situation. Is there any recourse she can take? I remember when my water heater died when I lived off campus, the landlord was there within an hour because he told us that we could legally withold rent if it was not fixed within a certain amount of time.

SO any thoughts as to what she can do. Maybe youve been outside lately, and we have been hit with a cold blast the past few days, and she is out for blood, as would I given the timing of this and the landlord's laziness.

Awadd9

I know very little, but generally speaking I believe laws def. favor the tenant.. in MA.

agrandy

I don't think that she would have a strong case for three days. I would just chalk it up to the landlord been an a--hole and I would move as soon as my lease was up. If I was her I would pro-rate my rent for the month and subtract those three days rent from the total rent due next month. If the landlord want's to collect the money for those three days he would have to take her to court. Just remember, the laws and the courts of MA are in the favor of the renter, the landlord is seen as the bad guy.<ul><li><a href="http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/186-14.htm">http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/186-14.htm</a</li></ul>

ArchitecTT

As a protest, withold the 3 days rent and fully document the whole chain of events, but as a practical matter, most abscentee landlords play this game better and with more experience than you're likely to want to compete with.

I'm no lawyer, but another approach might be to check with the housing department or building department of whatever city the apartment is in to find out if there have been other complaints against the guy. Sometimes the threat of involving inspection officials can add some teeth to your case because correcting code violations can get expensive for him.

bostonasphalt2

her rent is 775 a month.....

A4AdMan

broke in the middle of July while we were in a heat wave. I ended up having to spend 3 nights at my parents house until they fixed it. Net, Net my NJ lanlord took three days rent off of my August bill. Have your ex try that route.

agrandy

She may want to talk to the landlord about it first, but make sure she documents any conversations, so the landlord can't try to hold it against her later.

CrazyCab

Creating false records of stuff being broken, then he can take as much of the security deposit as possible.

CrazyCab

Unless of course there was sex involved, but with some that becomes a maybe.

Favorite movie quote, came from Family Man I believe, talking about X girlfriends

"X girlfriends are like tax returns, you file them away for a couple of years and after that you just let them go as you have no use for them"

or something like that...

BroncoOne

Also note that the LL may say--"I checked it out when she told me, called the gas company/Electric co/oil co (whatever) and had to wait for them." or "Found the problem and had to order a part, wait for my service guy to come--lots of people calling with the cold snap,no way it could be done faster", etc.

Also, he may be telling the truth.

If you check the statute link, it differentiates between where a the rent includes heat, and where the tenant has her own account with the gas/electric/oil company. If it was the furnace, that's a whole other issue, probably dealt with by the LL as noted in my first paragraph.