Forum Archive

Since December I’ve been calling my landlord and telling her the apartment is too cold. It ranges from 65 to 68 degrees during the day and 63 degrees at night. We live on the top floor of a brownstone. It’s a two-bedroom apartment with only two radiators; one in the kitchen and one in the larger bedroom. The second bedroom has no heating source. The heat does work but it is very weak. Only the top of the radiator gets warm, the bottom half never heats up. Before any of you landlord’s chime in with your “68 is warm enough” imagine waking up freezing at 3am and unable to get warm. It’s not a lot of fun.

As of yet my landlord’s one and only response is “I’ll take a look at it” but nothing ever changes. The boiler looks ancient but other apartments in the building are heated fine (in fact the apartment on the ground floor has turned one of their radiator’s off and opened their windows). So, my question is; is it the radiators? Can they be replaced? I think they are full of decades worth of gunk but I’ve read they can’t be bled. It’s one of those boilers where you have to turn a water valve to keep it full and working. I know it leaks because every couple of weeks it gets empty and the heat goes off in the entire building. I know the landlord is concerned about having any contractors or inspectors in because the building hasn’t been inspected since 1986 (I know this because that was the last time an inspector signed the building certificate posted in the hallway). She’s also done lots of hidden construction (turning one apartment into two, closing off doorways) which would cause some problems too. She’s not a bad person but I don’t think she knows what she’s doing when it comes to the heat (if, in fact, she’s doing anything besides giving me lip service and taking my $2700 every month).