Pub. 2 2017 Issue 1

12 www.ctaahq.org DEALING WITH FIX-IT-YOURSELF TENANTS A partment maintenance can be a problem. When it comes to living in a rental, tenants do have a legal right to health, safety, and structural standards. If a tenant tells you about an important problem, such as a broken heater or leaks in the roof that could make a rental unlivable and you don’t take care of it promptly, then the tenant has the right to take care of the problem for you and deduct the cost from the rent. The tenant might choose to go ahead and do the repair personally, but the tenant also has the option of hiring someone else. Maintenance problems can be categorized as being emergencies, or as major or minor problems. If something is an emergency, it threatens the health and safety of anyone living in the apartment. This includes issues such as a defective furnace, flooding, gas leaks, and major damage to the roof. Because the consequences are serious ones, you have 24 hours to act. Major problems are things that won’t kill anyone, but that certainly affect quality of life, like not having a functioning water heater. Minor problems are just that; minor irritations. The paint or wallpaper could be peeling, faucets might leak, household lighting or locks could be defective, and maybe there’s a problem with bugs. If the lock that won’t work happens to be the front door, that’s more of a major problem than a minor one. Since some problems are major ones and some are less urgent, your response should be determined by the seriousness of the problem and the consequences if you don’t take care of the problem promptly. If an apartment is unsafe, dirty, or has a serious deficiency on something important, like the availability of hot and cold water, you need to respond as fast as reasonably possible. At the same time, you have an obligation to take care of the smaller items, too. The law is vague here. You are supposed to keep the apartment in a state of “reasonable repair.” What does that mean, exactly? It hasn’t been legally defined. Take a generous attitude, though; the last thing you want is for the judge in some court to define it for you.