Tenant law question

[mermaidcafe.livejournal.com]

I vaguely remember hearing something about a law that says if you report a problem to your landlord and it doesn't get fixed w/in a certain amount of time (maybe 30 days?), then you can get it fixed and deduct the charge from your rent.

Can anyone fill me in on that or other laws that might be applicable to having something go un-fixed?

Comments

[ron_newman]

I added the legal tag to this post. Take a look through the old posts in that tag, especially this one.

[spud.livejournal.com]

I was going to respond with a couple of those links... ya beat me to it! :)

[unferth.livejournal.com]

It depends on the severity of the problems, and there's paperwork to go through to keep it legal if your landlord doesn't want you to do this. Sometimes landlords actually like repair and deduct, if the reason the repairs aren't getting made is lack of time to organize it rather than reluctance to pay for them.

Step one, if you've made as many informal requests of the landlord as you feel like bothering with, is to call in the Inspectional Services Department to certify the problems and give formal notice to the landlord.

http://www.somervillema.gov/Division.cfm?orgunit=ISD

"Repair and deduct is another means by which a tenant may make
emergency repairs in an apartment or common living areas and
deduct up to four months future rent to pay for them if three
conditions are met (M.G.L.,c. 111, s.127L):

o the local board of health or other code enforcement agency
has certified the health code violations the apartment as
Code One violations.

o the landlord receives written notice of the existing
violations from the inspecting agency.

o the landlord is allowed five days from the date of notice to
begin repairs him/herself or to contract for outside
services and 14 days to substantially complete all necessary
repairs. (Note: A landlord may have less than 14 days to
complete the repairs if ordered by the court or the local
code enforcement agency.)"

http://tenant.net/Other_Areas/Massachusetts/mrights.html

[mermaidcafe.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I read through some of that in the handbook. I'd already offered repair and deduct actually but my landlord wanted to sent maintenance. I have a really undependable maintenance guy and a too-nice landlord that keeps letting it slide when maintenance guy does dumb things.

I don't know if it's a Code One violation; it's a broken outlet, but I'll check into that.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

What sort of problem are you having with this outlet exactly?

I think the only outlet related problem that would count as "code one" would be if you were able to get a shock when using the outlet. A non-working outlet probably wouldn't count.

[mermaidcafe.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was my thought as well.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

well, I would guess a shock or something else that counts as an obvious fire or electrical hazard. Say, the outlet gets warm when you plug a device into it and turn the device on, or you see sparks when you plug a device in, etc., etc.

[masswich.livejournal.com]

To be honest, a broken outlet does not sound like a big deal to me. But what do I know, I'm an evil landlord! There are code issues for new construction about how many outlets are needed in a room but I'm not sure how that applies to older buildings. Generally it seems that there should be at least one outlet in each room. So if its the only outlet in the room that seems like a bigger deal than if there are others.

In general its not hard to replace/fix an outlet so its a mystery why the landlord won't fix it. Its not expensive. I would suggest that taking the "legal" route over a broken outlet is unlikely to result in a happy outcome for anyone...

[mermaidcafe.livejournal.com]

It's the only outlet in my bedroom.

[masswich.livejournal.com]

Well, then that's not an acceptable situation. I'd notify the landlord in writing that you need the outlet fixed as soon as possible and that, if it is not fixed within a certain time, you will need to look at other options. See what he says. If nothing happens in the time you outlined, I'd get a quote on having an electrician fix it. If its cheap, I'd probably just get it fixed myself and see if I can get away with taking the cost out of the rent next month.

However, If you get a good deal on your rent and want to stay a while, you might want to just eat the cost, not because you should, but because its a lot easier then getting in a pissing match with a landlord who offers decent rent. There are rules about raising rent on tenants who insist on their rights, but it just can become very ugly and expensive for everyone...

Good luck. I had no power in my bedroom once, and it was not a great situation.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

However, If you get a good deal on your rent and want to stay a while, you might want to just eat the cost, not because you should, but because its a lot easier then getting in a pissing match with a landlord who offers decent rent

Yes, being a doormat for someone who won't fulfill his or her clearly spelled out legal responsibilities is such an excellent choice.

Seriously, WTF? Landlords need to provide up-to-code electrical outlets in their rental units. It's not the tenant's job to make home repairs like this, nor should it be.

If her landlord isn't a greedy lunatic, he will realize that it's in his interest to make sure that basic repairs are done in a timely manner, and not get "in a pissing match."

[davelew.livejournal.com]

It would be great if everyone had a landlord who charged low rent and was really attentive to problems like this. Unfortunately, sometimes person has to settle for a good apartment with low rent, but make the tradeoff of having less responsiveness from the landlord. In some situations (not sure if this is one) it makes sense to just eat the $100 and figure you'd be paying that much more in rent somehwere else or that much more in realtor fees and hassle to find a new place with a working outlet in the bedroom.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying is "Enable someone to break the law."

Seriously, I don't get it. The landlord should want to provide a safe apartment that meets legal standards.

Now, if it's just "I don't want to wait for him to do it; I want it done right away" then maybe you've got a point.

But it sounds like you folks are saying it's okay if the landlord NEVER takes responsibility for it, because, hey, he's offering cheap rent. That's fucked up, in my opinion.

[davelew.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying, "enable someone to break the law," that would be wrong and self-defeating.

I'm saying "Enable someone to take advantage of a gray area in the law ONLY IF you're getting something in return." That's a rational economic transaction; you get something from the landlord (i.e. you pay below market rent) and you give something in return (i.e. you refrain from bothering the landlord with minor complaints).

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I am neither a lawyer nor an electrician, and this is not legal advice.

IIRC this is a repair that by law needs to be done by a licensed electrician. If that's not true from a legal standpoint it's certainly true from a moral one. It's one thing to take a risk with your own home, but a different thing entirely to do so with someone else's property.

So even though it'd take an electrician five minutes--provided he or she doesn't find more significant problems with the wiring--you're into the cost of a service call. What's that run these days, a hundred bucks?

I think part of what the landlord might be afraid of is potentially opening up a can of worms, where an electrician discovers that major parts of the building are not up to code and require fixing at an expense far greater than the cost of repairing one electrical outlet.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I agree that litigation or involving a government agency of any sort is the means of absolute last resort.

Having it as the only outlet in the room, as mermaidcafe notes below, raises the stakes rather a lot.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, Inspectional Services enforces the Sanitary Code. Despite the name, the Sanitary Code covers a number of minimum habitability requirements such as heat and weatherproofing. Electrical outlets are covered.

There's a summary online at:
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cissfsn/sfsnidx.htm

It reports that every room is supposed to have at least one outlet, so if the only one in your bedroom is broken it seems to me (not a lawyer, not an inspector) that that's a violation.

I believe "Code One" means that in the inspector's opinion the violation endangers your health or safety. It seems unlikely to me that a broken outlet would be judged as such as long as there aren't exposed wires or the like, but it's at the discretion of the inspector.

Calling in Inspectional Services is, of course, perceived as something of an escalation in landlord/tenant relationships. If you're considering any kind of formal action or complaint, it's a necessary one, but people understandably get a bit grumpy when you call down the government on them. Even when it's because they're neglecting their legal responsibilities.

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

You can get info about that from the MA office of consumer affairs. Their web site is www.consumer.org I think. If you don't find the info you need right on the web site, just call them, they try hard to be helpful.