I pit my landlord, his crony the super and me

You scummy, low life, lying, weasely little jerk!

It’s not enough that you got me and my guest from overseas sick as dogs last year when you completely ignored the problems we were having with our heating system. You dodged my phone calls, never responded to my letters, for 3 weeks we had it FREEZING cold in here, and you did nothing.

I decided enough is enough when our guest was getting sicker and I called a plumber to get things fixed. He told us our heating unit was a very inefficient model (of course, you don’t pay for gas, so why not go cheap, right?) and we’d be lucky to ever get it above 70 degrees in winter. Well, we’d take anything we got at that point, and we did get a veyr nice 68 to 71 degrees for the rest of the season.

I knew, that according to NJ law, if I had complained about the problem in writing and given you a reasonable amount of time to do somethign about it I could get if fixed myself and deduct the amount from my rent. And so I did, giving you a copy of my first letter, a copy of the receipt and the rest of the rent.

But no, that wasn’t to your liking, and you insisted we pay atleast for half of the bill. Which we did for some stupid reason.

Now it’s a year later, and guess what, the heat isn’t working again. It’s 53 degrees in my house right now you shit-bag. My SO is freezing, I’m freezing, and that’s even though we’re huddled under a blanket, wearing thermal undies, pants, a sweater and our bathrobes!!!

Oh and yes, your crony the super has been giving us the run around, no doubt at your behest. First he fiddles with the boiler three times, with no results, claims to have a plumber on the phone helping him (why doesn’t the plumber come in and do it himself!!???) and then has the audacity to friggin’ lie to my face, claiming that he too, has 55 degrees in his apartment and that so do all my neighbors.

You fucking, dickless, weasely, lying, souless lackey, I was JUST IN YOUR APARTMENT. You DO NOT have 55 degrees down there, the hallway immeadiately outside is WARMER than my apartment. You have a 1 year old kid, he would be sick if it was 55 degrees in your apartment all day you lying sack of donkey shit! I also just spoke to my neighbor who claims to ALSO have problems with his heat, but his temperature is atleast 68 to 70 degrees!!!

I realize now that nothing is going to happen. Mr. Landlord, I know you’re going to try and wait out the snow and the cold and ignore me so that you don’t have to own up to your responsabilities.

Well it’s not fair! It’s not fair that we cannot be comfortable in our home. That we cannot take a shower longer than 2 minutes before we’re sprayed with artic-cold water.

I don’t understand you. We’re good tenants. We take care of the apartment and treat it with care and respect. We pay the rent in time. We don’t make noise or bother our neighbors. We’re nice people. So why are you being such a scumbag?

I own property in NJ, and I know that if my tenant said he had no heat in the dead of winter I’d get someone there ASAP.

I hate people like you, who think they can step all over other people.

I wish I could do soemthing more, but I can’t. My SO loves this apartment and she’s terrified we’ll lose it if I make a stink about it. It’s so unfair.

(My GQ link: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=298219 )

Oh yea, I never got to pitting me. Well I pit myself for agreeing to this year’s lease in which (I just realized) he prevents me from using my RIGHT UNDER NJ LAW to pay for repairs that are not taken care of using rent money.

Bastard!

IANAL, etc. etc., but I do believe you cannot sign away your rights.

Report the bastard.

I’d contact your local tenants-rights organization to see what you can do to make this guy fix the heat.

You have the right to live in a habitable dwelling. There are remedies under the law if it’s not. An unheated apartment in the winter is not habitable. The landlord cannot force you to sign a lease waiving your rights.

Hell, I’d call a heating guy and deduct it from the rent anyway. Let him explain himself to the judge.

Robin

By “him”, I mean “the landlord”.

Robin

Call a good lawyer and take the guy to court.

Are you sure a clause to that effect is even enforceable?

Time to get in touch with your local bar association. They’ll hook you up with either a low-cost (for a lawyer) 30-minute consult, or refer you to some other service (for example, there’s a legal advice line in Dallas they operate a couple times a month–maybe there’s a similar program up there…)

Gosh, until the heat gets fixed, can you get a good space heater to at least warm up a room?
We have one of these models:
http://www.store.yahoo.com/air-n-water/elfanspachea.html
and it really works well- It doesn’t seem to eat electricity like some other models and we use it in our unheated basement/workshop. There are no exposed hot coils like some heaters, so it’s not a burn hazard, turns off if tipped, etc.

Just a thought so at least you’re not totally miserable until things get fixed. Sorry for your troubles.