Help, my heat is not working!

     It has been bitterly cold in Massachusetts this week.  If your heat is not working properly and you are a tenant or a landlord, here are some things you need to know.

• Unless the tenant is providing the fuel for heat, the landlord is required to provide heat between September 15 and June 15 each year.  During that time, the temperature between 7:00 am and 11:00 pm must be between 68 and 78 degrees Fahrenheit.  From 11:01 pm until 6:59 am, the temperature must be at least 64 degrees Fahrenheit (and still cannot exceed 78 degrees).

• You dont have to be completely without heat to call the town or city about it.  If your unit never gets above 66, you should call and document the issue..

• A landlord is responsible for maintaining the heating system in good operating condition.  This is not something that can be shifted to the tenant.

• If a tenant does not have heat, let the landlord know immediately.  It is fine to notify by phone, but follow up with an email or hand written note and keep a copy.  

• If you are a landlord, keep your tenant apprised of the timeline and events.  Treat the tenant as you would want to be treated if it was your house with no heat.

• If the landlord is not responsive, call your town or city board of health or inspectional services who will conduct an inspection and document the issue.  If it is after hours, you can try and call the non-emergency line of your local police.  They might be able to help.  If your heat was out previously, call again and ask for a reinspection.  Lack of heat is considered a condition that endangers or impairs safety.  Ask the city or town about emergency relief.

• Particularly where the weather is so cold, it is not inappropriate to ask the landlord for space heaters until the heat is fixed.  If the heat is going to be out for sometime, you may ask the landlord pay for a hotel or alternative housing.

• Ultimately, if your heat is not working properly, but your landlord will not pay for you to stay in a hotel, and bunking with friends or family is not an option, you have few choices.  My recommendation is to make the decision to stay or go that you need to make for you and your family's health, safety and welfare.  There may be legal implications and you may have a case, but be safe first and foremost.

Stay warm and safe out there.

More on Lead Paint

Last year, we wrote about  the landlords’ obligations to disclose the presence of lead paint in rental units and the penalties for failing to disclose.  Click here to see our earlier post.  In March, the Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office announced a $75,000.00 settlement with a landlord based on discrimination and retaliatory practices by the landlord in renting units with lead paint.  The settlement is reportedly the largest fair housing settlement to date while Martha Coakley has held the Attorney General position.

The landlord, who is an attorney, allegedly attempted to evict tenants with young children because he did not want to de-lead the unit.  Additionally, the Attorney General’s office alleged that the landlord failed to properly disclose the presence of lead paint in the rental units, rented units with lead paint to tenants with young children, refused to repair unsafe and unsanitary conditions, and retaliated against tenants when they reported violations to the local boards of health. 

As this recent settlement demonstrates, anyone, even an attorney,  can run afoul of the lead paint laws.  In this case, the landlord had not only civil claims against him, but claims by the the Attorney General’s office, as well.  In our prior blog post regarding lead paint, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fined several management companies for its practices.  There is no shortage of ways landlords can find themselves in a bind when they fail to heed their obligations under the lead paint statutes.

Our Landlord Seminar is Back!

Please join us on April 10, 2013 at 7:00 pm to hear us speak about how to be a smart residential landlord.  Space is very limited so sign up here:  http://tanowitzlaw.eventbrite.com  We look forward to seeing you.

The Today Show on Renting

This morning the Today Show had a segment on renting property.  You can watch the segment at this link: 
  http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/46219482 .  Barbara Corcoran has a lot of good advice, however, I question whether one should pay 6 months of rent in advance. In Massachusetts, it is not even clear to me that a tenant could do such a thing, even if it was completely voluntary.  In any event, paying in advance poses risks for both the landlord and the tenant.  When the tenant, pays in advance, he or she loses her leverage to withhold rent or to even threaten to withhold rent if something serious does go wrong.  Second, a landlord is only entitled to collect rent on the due date for the month it is due.  Even if a tenant voluntarily pays, the tenant could change his or her story and say that the 6 month payment was compulsory.  For those reasons, I'd say its not worth it to consider advance payments.

Second, in Massachusetts, every landlord must provide a written statement of condition for the tenant to fill out.  The tenant absolutely needs to point out what is wrong with the apartment when they move in so it can be fixed and so he or she is not charged for it on the way out.  On the flip side, if the landlord does not obtain that signed, written statement of condition, they are going to have a very difficult time deducting the damage from any security deposit at the end of the tenancy.