Can we break our lease if our apartment is not being heated properly?
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Can we break our lease if our apartment is not being heated properly?
The temperature in our apartment is consistently below 68 degrees (which I read is the minimum a landlord must keep it heated to). We have made management aware of this many, many times. We have no thermostat in our apartment and the heating system in place appears to be very inadequate. There are thermostats placed in other units that control when the heat comes on for our unit. Sometimes it is as low as 60 in our apartment, and we have a small baby. Management has stopped responding to our e-mailed complaints and has offered no solution. Can we just leave and break our lease without fault?
Asked on November 3, 2011 under Real Estate Law, Pennsylvania
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
You should speak with an attorney before doing anything; you may have grounds to termiante the lease, but it is not clear that you do, so you need someone to evaluate the situation in detail with you.
The principle: every lease comes with what's known as the
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