Withholding Rent?
Looking for input from owners who rent (or others with similar experience) on this board on a situation with my landlord. I agreed to allow my landlord into the apartment to do some work on the bathroom. The work was to last no longer than 3 days which was fine given that I would be…
Looking for input from owners who rent (or others with similar experience) on this board on a situation with my landlord. I agreed to allow my landlord into the apartment to do some work on the bathroom. The work was to last no longer than 3 days which was fine given that I would be out of town for those days. Of course the work was not done upon my return and the bathroom contained no sink, tub or toilet — they were all in the living room. After many excuses and a whole week the landlord finally finished the work recently — six days after it had been promised — leaving me with none of the items mentioned above during those 6 days. Since the apartment with toilet, sink and tub is what I pay for every month I’m hoping to deduct the days off of my monthly rent. This total exceeds what the landlord has offered to deduct ($200 plus another $100 for a cleaning service)
Am I within my rights to deduct the 6 days off of my rent?
doesn’t quiet enjoyment legally cover this?
You agreed to 3 days. It took 6. $300 for the extra 3 days seems reasonable. Or did it take 9 days in total?
Of course this is the kind of inconvenience that anyone who owns their own one-bedroom apartment has to go through when renovating the bathroom. Thinking that it can be done in 3 or 4 days is unrealistic. I have had friends who had to shower at the gym for a month. Usually the contractors re-install the toilet every night, but brushing teeth etc, has to be done in the kitchen sink. People get through it.
I agree with Ringo. There’s a huge difference between having a 2nd working bathroom, and having the only bathroom out of commission. If it’s the 2nd bathroom, I’d probably just let it go with what the landlord offered as it appears he’s trying to be reasonable for your troubles. If it was your only bathroom, the apartment is basically uninhabitable without a working toilet, and the 6 days is fair. I would certainly approach the landlord with your “offer” — I can’t imagine your rent is so high on a 1 bath apartment that the 6 days would amount to more than $100-$150 than the $200 you were offered. However, if you like the landlord and he generally treats you nicely, I’d probably let it go if the amount wasn’t significant.
did you have a second, working bathroom in the aparmtment you could use during the work? if so, take his offer. If this was your one and only bathroom, deducting those 6 days is more than fair.
LL is offer three, what do you think you are entitled to? Five, Six? All of the suggestions above are rational if you are talking about a lot of money, but for a few hundred do you really want to start litigating? The time spent preparing the documents are not even worth it, much less showing up in court and dealing with an adversarial living situation.
Is this really about the money, or are you just looking to exact your revenge for being put out?
You have to be very careful about witholding rent if you think you may ever want to rent another apartment in the City. There are lists compiled by certain companies of tenants who withold rent or who cause trouble to landlords. Unfortunately, many landlords will not accept anyone on that list even if they had a legitimate reason to withold rent or take a landlord to court. Affordable apartments are very scarce and landlords would rather not “risk it” with tenants who have a history, however benign, of not paying rent.
In your case, I don’t think a few day’s rent is worth the possible future repercussions. Besides, you have a new bathroom now!
Take the $300 and drop it… all’s well now? sink,tub
and toilet back in place? landlord cleaned the mess up?
Move forward!
An apartment without a bathroom isn’t really an apartment, is it? How are you supposed to live in a place with no toilet? It sounds to me like the ll made a slightly lowball offer and you should counter with what you think is reasonable (with the logic to back it up). I agree that involving 311/notarized letters/etc etc should only happen if negotiations fail.