I am glad you are somewhere warm. I would check with someone (can't tell you who), that knows about rental law in your area. It should be illeagal for them to not get it fixed this time of year. That said, please, don't be surprised if you are suddenly told that you need to find someplace else to live ASAP. Obviously, they don't want to spend any money on this house. It's too bad that big corporations are only interested in tearing down and building big, ugly stuff.

Tami

We've thought about the possibility that they may give us the boot, but they have to give us 2 months notice from the beginning of a month.

We pay $1500/month in rent plus utilities, so it's more profitable for them to do the repairs and keep it occupied than to leave it sitting empty. I don't think it's the money as much as the bother.

Nicole,
Call your insurance company. They may reimburse you for hotel, meal & gas expenses. I had a similar experience years ago when we rented a house in Iowa. Our furnace developed a hole in the Âbonnet" & we ended up with soot in the house besides the fact we could have been killed from the carbon monoxide! We tried to stay the first couple of days when the furnace first went out. I even used my blow dryer to try to heat a room. When I realized what was happening in the house & our landlord (big name in town) wasnÂt doing anything, I called my insurance man & went to a motel. They had their man come check the furnace & found the hole. We ended up staying at the motel for over a month before the furnace was replaced & the house cleaned of all the soot. We kept all our receipts, gas, food, extraÂs, etc. Our insurance company went after the landlord (nicely) & was returned their expenses for our claims. My insurance even made sure we had daily Ârunning money as we had 2 rooms (3 boys), gas money for taking them to school (40 mile round trip as it was a country school) & meals. It was quite the experience! I even bought our cooler, microwave & toaster oven with us. Thank goodness the motel had a pool or I donÂt know what I would of done with my boys at that age (7, 8 & 16)

Make sure they have a good furnace repair person look at the furnace. Try to be there when they come so you or your husband can ask questions. Even get a second opinion of your own. I mostly Âlurk here but have enjoyed watching your children grow-up. Nothing is more precious then your children, protect them from a landlord that lets problems side.

Good Luck to your family,
Ginger

In California, if your landlord didn't get your heat fixed the next day you could deduct a day's rent for every day until it was fixed. The house is considered uninhabitable without heat.

Heat is a requirement to renting!
Here you can't collect rent if you don't provide the basics.
I mean they have to have a working furnace.
Stay warm Nicole and family!

I don't know who you would check with on Canadian law, but in the US you are legally allowed to get something fixed that the landlord ignores. Keep a record of all your emails. Get someone to repair the burner (which probably needs to be replaced), then you deduct your expenses from the next months rent. They would also be legally obligated to pay for your hotel bills.

The law here is that they must provide a habitable dwelling. An unheated house in the NorthEast, in winter, with children no less, is not habitable. You may also deduct a days rent for each for each day of inconvenience, but that money has to be held in a separate bank account. That shows intent to pay. Not sure if you can fix the burner AND deduct rent.

Is there a landlord/tenant court in your area? If so, that is who you would contact for how to get this resolved to your advantage. The landlord is not entitled to an advantage in this situation.

Sooooooooooo not right, and especially with kids!

Go get 'em Nicole!

((((Nicole)))))

Wait until the pipes freeze, then he will fix the furnace.

Nicole,
Just wondering if your landlord took care of the furnace problems for you or if your still at the hotel. Hope your home where is warm & cozy for all of you.

You can make a complaint to the Landlord and Tenant Board, and serve the landlord notice to attend a hearing. They have an obligation to provide heat to your home and the Board will hold them accountable. It's true that you cannot deduct expenses from your rent, but then, that leaves them in the position of having to take you to the board, as well, which might not be so bad. I think you can also call the public health department for your city. They will likely get on the landlord's case.. they do that here Another option is to call your local MPP's office- they advocate for people in situations like this.

I've included a link to the Board. The site explains the obligations of the landlord and the tenant very well, and also includes forms you can download if you decide to initiate action.

Here is a link that might be useful: Landlord and Tenant Board

Sorry I forgot to update! We are once again warm!

Claude went to work on Thursday morning and came back to the hotel around noon. He had previously booked Thursday afternoon off because Sophie had a pre-op physical booked for 2:45. Anyhow.....

Thursday at around 1:00 Claude got a call from a third heating company and they said they'd be at the house within the hour. We were still at the hotel, so we packed up our stuff as quickly as possible, checked out and drove home. It was soooo cold in the house. Our dish detergent had partially frozen.

When the guy got to the house, he had a quick look at the furnace and said that it didn't need any new part (like the first guy had said), but just needed a cleaning! He cleaned it, added screws to the stack, taped a few holes, turned up the speed of the fan, and presto! Heat! It's working better now than before.

When I realized it was just a cleaning that was needed I went into a bit of a panic, wondering if after all my complaining, it would turn out that the tenant is responsible for the maintenance of the furnace. I called the Landlord and Tenant Board to check, and they said that it was the Landlord's responsibility to inspect and clean it. WHEW! The repair guy said that it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in 10 years, but that it's supposed to be done yearly.

Susan, thank you for the info. I have checked that website many times over the years. We debated calling them this time, but since the landlords seemed to be doing SOMETHING (albeit slowly), we decided to push them get it done and avoid the hassle of going through filing forms, going before the board, etc. If they STILL hadn't done anything, we definitely would have gone to the Landlord Tenant Board.

When heat was restored, Claude called our contact person to let her know. She was all apologies over the hassles and the time we had to wait, and said that of course we could deduct the amount of the hotel bill from our rent.

So, as annoyed as we are with our landlords, we're all a lot more relaxed right now. And toasty warm!

YEA~ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So glad that they're finally doing the right thing, even though they should never have inconvenienced you. But at least you don't have an ongoing fight on your hands.

I'm glad it worked out. I just hated the image of poor little Oliver's chattering teeth. Hope the kids had a fun holiday!

Good News! Glad your home safe & sound & WARM!!!!

Good! I had been waiting for you to follow up! I know how miserable it is to be that cold. We ran out of propane on Christmas morning, a three day weekend! I found out after the fact that my propane man would have come. Hindsite.... anyway, glad to hear that the rent issue is resolved. We are also renters and our landlord is really really good about stuff like that. Most of the time he gets a repair person to our place same day- on a couple of occasions we have paid the bill and deducted from rent. We pay for little jobs just because we don't mind and would rather have the nicer toilet seat or door lock or whatever.

Glad to hear you are warm!

Trish

Hi Nicole, Claude and children,

I'm really pleased that things have worked out well, even though you had some hassles along the road: sorry about the chattering teeth.

Do you think that there may be a possibility of frozen pipes? Keep yur eyes open, foad/kitchentable/msg0108565627713.html">
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