If the heat doesn’t abate, officials are advising people to stay away from the outdoors. But what happens if your home doesn’t offer protection from the high temperatures? Do renters who don’t have air conditioning or whose AC units are broken have any recourse? We’ve gathered information to help you determine if you deserve cool air.
Are landlords required to provide air conditioning?
There are two main factors that determine whether your landlord is required to provide air conditioning: your lease and your location.
First, check your lease to see if air conditioning is included (it will likely be listed under amenities). “If it’s listed at all, you need to follow the terms of the lease,” says Jacqueline Salcines, an attorney in Coral Gables, Florida, who focuses on real estate and business law.
Landlord and tenant laws vary widely by region. But most states do not consider air conditioning to be a required essential service, like heat and running water.
Which states require landlords to provide AC? Florida, Nevada, and Arizona — all places with very hot climates. “Here in Florida, AC is a big problem,” Salcines says. If it doesn’t work, “a unit becomes uninhabitable.”
But even if your state doesn’t consider AC an essential service, that doesn’t mean you’re completely out of luck. You should also check your county’s laws. For example, while Maryland doesn’t have a statewide AC statute, in Montgomery County, “a landlord is required to provide and maintain air conditioning for all tenants,” with a few exceptions, says Carol Ott, director of tenant advocacy at Economic Action Maryland.
Should Landlords Repair Your Air Conditioning?
If your property has air conditioning and it breaks, chances are your landlord will have to fix it. (You should check your lease and local laws.)
“If you rent a property with air conditioning, the landlord has an active duty to maintain it,” says Aaron Sokolow, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who focuses on landlord-tenant law, particularly the District’s rules.
How long can a landlord leave you without air conditioning? How long do they have to fix it?
In many jurisdictions, the law doesn’t set a specific time frame for repairs. Instead, landlords must fix a situation “within a reasonable time frame,” a phrase Ott describes as vague and subjective. “For me, a reasonable time frame on a day like today would be maybe 20 minutes,” she says.
Some places, however, have more specific requirements. In Florida, a landlord must take action on the AC problem within seven days of receiving notice from the tenant, Salcines says. “If the landlord doesn’t fix it or address it within seven days, the tenant has the right to terminate the lease because it makes a unit uninhabitable.”
Regardless of where you live, if you need to complain to your landlord about the air conditioning (or lack thereof), make sure you do so in writing. This way you have proof of the correspondence.
Can I withhold rent because of broken air conditioning?
A broken air conditioner can certainly serve as a legal defense for not paying your rent. But again, the specific rules vary from place to place. In D.C., a landlord’s right to collect rent is based on his or her compliance with all of the housing code’s obligations. So, Sokolow explains, “a judge can say, ‘Landlord, you’re not entitled to your full rental value because you failed to meet your obligation to provide air conditioning.’” Of course, that means you’ll have to go to court over the issue.
Ott says that even though air conditioning isn’t a right in Maryland, a tenant can still sue their landlord over the problem, though “you have to be a little creative,” she says. “If the air conditioning was delivered and it suddenly stops working, you could argue that you can sue for diminished service or something like that.”
In Florida, meanwhile, if your landlord doesn’t respond after seven days, you have a couple of options, Salcines says. “You can terminate your lease and then you’re entitled to your full security deposit, plus any advance rent,” she says. Or you can call a repairman yourself and deduct the money you spent to fix the air conditioning from your next month’s rent.
