Help! - Screwed on APT. Lawsuit?
A month ago I moved to NY into FIDI for 3k a month. Older building. Sight unseen because I'm out of LA. Everything is perfect except when I get there the unit feels extremely hot. Before I signed, I obviously checked to ensure unit has AC/heating. It turns out my unit sits on top of the entire building's heating system. The walls are hot to the touch, certain areas of the floor are scalding, and at night (in winter) it gets up to 80 degrees + in here. The broker says hey just open the window (the 40 degrees balances out the 100 in here). I didn't turn on the AC because it's bloody winter.
I feel like this is something the broker should have told me. Like a major thing they should have told me. The unit is a mini oven cooking me, and I would have never moved in had I known that the literal walls were going to be hot to the touch. Can I sue the owner/broker? I've emailed them to discount the rent or cover full utilities for AC, but haven't heard back.
If you already signed and such, you’re probably sh** outta luck. You could try to spin it into a safety concern, that’s probably your best shot
Rule 1 of NYC rental: never EVER sign site unseen. I get that you were across the country, but it would’ve been worth the trip. Or worth doing a long term hotel stay or something until you had signed a place in the city.
In this economy spending 1k+ to see a place seemed crazy, especially from LA. Thanks for the advice. Will try it
You may potentially have recourse if it is in fact a safety issue, however, NYC heat laws are designed around landlords being required to provide a minimum temperature when the outdoor temperature falls below 55 degrees. But, as far as I am aware, there is nothing regarding a maximum temperature.
At the end of the day, nothing will get fixed or changed before your lease expires. Chalk this up as a learning experience and start looking for a new apartment late fall.
This is explicitly untrue and absolutely awful advice.
Tenants have a ton of recourse in this city, this guy just hasn't opted to go through any of those channels in favor of "suing" his landlord.
If it's not a safety issue, please tell me exactly how fast the city or the landlord will move to correct this?
Exactly? I have no idea. Generally speaking HPD inspectors are pretty good about getting out to investigate tenant complaints. You may be right, the landlord might never fix the issue. But having open housing violations can cause a lot of issues for landlords and management companies aside from the reputational hit, so reputable landlords are usually incentivized to fix complaints relatively quickly.
If, somehow, this is just an issue with the unit itself because of it's location within the building, then OP is shit out of luck... but that's his fault for not investigating the unit before leasing. Landlords aren't responsible for saving tenants from their own poor decisions.
And OP said the floors are "scalding" hot. That is absolutely a health and safety issue!
My assumption is that the OP is not speaking literally here. The radiant heat from a truly scalding floor (floor temp of 125-130 degrees and up) should raise the interior temperature above 80 degrees, no? If the floor is scalding to the point of causing injury, common sense would suggest that you do not go to WSO for advice. My advice was based on this assumption and the inference that HPD would not prioritize an overly "warm" room when there are landlords out there who try to avoid providing the minimum levels of heat.
If the floor is in fact scalding to the point of causing injury, there could easily be substantial engineering defects in the heating system beneath the unit and the OP should not stay the unit. If no injury is being caused and the floor is just uncomfortably warm, then I maintain that nothing will be fixed in the immediate future before the heat is turned off for the spring/summer/fall.
If you literally cannot walk across the floor without pain, then that is a health and safety issue which you should report to a housing agency.
However, something seems amiss here, because this isn't how heating systems work, generally. Also, I'm not sure why you don't turn the A/C on... sure, it's winter, but set it to 72 or whatever and at least make sure the heat has been turned off. Frankly, it sounds like you have jumped straight to "lawsuit" instead of the numerous intermediate steps.
Also, how in the world are you going to justify suing your landlord for utilities? You'd be paying for heat if you weren't paying for air conditioning, so you haven't actually lost anything.
So there is no heat. that's the thing. the unit gets so hot (floors and walls transmitting heat from whatever is beneath/behind it) that the unit gets to 80 on its own. I could turn on the AC but then I would need it running basically all day long. that feels like a cost the building should pick up since its a plug in unit.
Again, this doesn't sound right. Heating systems aren't "in the walls" in the sense you are saying they are, so I assume there is another explanation. Call 311, or HPD, or any of the many, many resources that exist in NYC to protect renters. Especially when it comes to heating issues in winter, they'll come quickly
As Ozy said, you should contact the NY housing department to come and do an inspection, they handle this stuff all of the time, and the landlord will be significantly more scared of them than a lawsuit from you.
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