What to do if my landlord refuses to pay for our heat to be fixed?
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What to do if my landlord refuses to pay for our heat to be fixed?
It says in our lease we are required to maintain a service contract. However, no other tenants we have spoken to have done this in the past and thus we don’t have one. She can’t provide us with the name of the company that previous tenants “supposedly” used. I told her that we would setup a new one, but that according to our lease, she’s responsible for whatever goes over $100 for maintenance and repairs for every instance. Thus we should pay $100 of the maintenance service fee and $100 for repairs – that’s it. However, her response to me was this: “Not exactly, the maintenance contract is your requirement…”.
Asked on December 16, 2012 under Real Estate Law, Virginia
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
Your lease is a contract: you and the landlord are both bound by its terms. If the lease obligates you to set up and pay the basic charges of a maintenance contract, that's what you have to do--and if the lease says thel andlord pays amounts over $100, that's what she does. If the landlord will not voluntarily honor her contractual obligations, you could sue her to recover any amounts to which you are entitled.
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
Your lease is a contract: you and the landlord are both bound by its terms. If the lease obligates you to set up and pay the basic charges of a maintenance contract, that's what you have to do--and if the lease says thel andlord pays amounts over $100, that's what she does. If the landlord will not voluntarily honor her contractual obligations, you could sue her to recover any amounts to which you are entitled.
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