My electricity has went out at least 9 times in the past month and I am the only one in my building losing power. Each time, I call the landlord and he "flips the breaker" as he calls it and leaves. This last time he said my meter was "spinning 5 times as fast as everyone else's" and that he'd have an electrician come check the apartment for problems. He has yet to do this. I would be more patient if I thought he was trying to.fix the problem but flipping the breaker isn't cutting it. Currently I'm sitting with no power for the past 45 minutes with a fridge full of groceries spoiling and no moving air. Is this enough to break my lease? Plus, I have a patio screen door I cannot open that he has known about the 6 months I've been here and no working smoke detectors as the old ones kept going off for no reason and he won't replace them, just replaces the batteries. I had to take them down cause they went off nonstop.
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
all the issues that you list are code issues. Give him a list of items that needs to be fixed and a dead line of 7 days. In the letter, tell him that you will stop paying rent until the items are fixed IN FULL and that after 7 days you will also be reporting him to the local building code office.
If your breaker is tripping constantly, YOU are overloading the electrical circuits. If your meter is spinning that fast, you are simply using too many electrical appliances. You DO understand why a breaker is installed, don't you ?
No, this is not enough to break your lease. YOU need to learn to control your electrical usage, so that you do NOT trip the breaker constantly. Clean the smoke detectors, so that they sense properly. I hope you realize that removal of smoke detectors is illegal and is a violation of local law.
Frankly, you sound like a problem tenant. I'd let you break your lease just to get rid of you.
Yes you can. A lease is a two way street. You are obligated to live there for a certain length of time and pay your rent ontime in full each moth. LL is obligated to provide the roof over your head as stated and keep up needed repairs in a timely manner. You are doing what you are supposed to do, he is not. He already broke the lease. Document the situation and move out.
No
You must put your request for repairs in Writing and send it certified mail.
Sounds like you are overloading the system so try pulling the plug on appliances when not in use.
Dry cleaning the dust out of your smoke detectors.
Yes, like the other answer, be sure to document EVERYTHING. And to break your lease, I'd talk to him first and try to make peace, if nothing drastic happens, send a certified letter to him itemizing his failed responsibilities to provide a safe, livable space and give appropriate notice to vacate.