# 5 months without hot water landlord won't fix and is charging full rent

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-months-without-hot-water-landlord-wont-fix-and-is-charging-full-rent/722622>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 15, 2015, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-months-without-hot-water-landlord-wont-fix-and-is-charging-full-rent/722622 "2015-06-15T22:17:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-months-without-hot-water-landlord-wont-fix-and-is-charging-full-rent/722622/21 "2015-06-17T15:55:20Z")

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You may want to look into contacting a local TV or radio station’s investigative reporter. They love stuff like this.

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**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-months-without-hot-water-landlord-wont-fix-and-is-charging-full-rent/722622/22 "2015-06-17T16:30:49Z")

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Just a note before you withhold rent: a better practice, to show good faith on your part, is to pay your rent into an escrow account rather than paying anything to your landlord, and inform your landlord in writing of what you’re doing and why. This will hopefully head off any later assertions of “he’s just a deadbeat who doesn’t want to pay his rent,” because you ARE paying rent, just not to your landlord; it’s being held until he fulfills his obligations.

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**Author:** ![Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_Hey_Paula)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-months-without-hot-water-landlord-wont-fix-and-is-charging-full-rent/722622/23 "2015-06-17T16:45:24Z")

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> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Five _months_? Five hours, I’d be patient. Five days and I’d be talking to an attorney.

How is it five months when the OP only moved into the residence on March 8 of this year? 😕 (Three months and change is still too long to be without hot water, though. Time to move and don’t look back.)

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**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-months-without-hot-water-landlord-wont-fix-and-is-charging-full-rent/722622/24 "2015-06-17T16:49:31Z")

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> [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](#):
>
> How is it five months when the OP only moved into the residence on March 8 of this year? 😕 (Three months and change is still too long to be without hot water, though. Time to move and don’t look back.)

Heh, that’s right. Maybe she has a dog, and it’s been 5 dog months.

/science

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