Posted on 10/10/2012 7:17:05 AM PDT by Feline_AIDS
What do you pay per month? What is the heating cost per month you have to pay now? Move if that’s too much for you. You’re leaving anyway. Paying a buttload to keep from moving isn’t good economics....
Move out now.
You can find short term housing at a motel or hotel and keep your sanity.
I couldn’t really follow what you said, but I would guess that if you light a fire in that old chimney, the place will burn down (you didn’t mention a lining).
We use this since the kids aren’t in the house. We only really need our bedroom, bathroom and kitchen area toasty and in Texas it isn’t like it’s crazy cold all the time.
http://www.consumersearch.com/space-heaters/lasko-755320-ceramic-tower-heater
It does cut off, too.
If you don’t need both window units remove one.
Close up the fireplaces and pur clear plastic kits over the windows.
Use the space heater when you are out (MAKE SURE IT IS SECURE FROM THE PETS) and when you sleep.
Do you have a lease? It may say landlord pays heat since he did at first.
You have a heat source.... that’s the good news.
What we used to do back in the old days when I lived in an apartment with a similar problem in OH is open the window in the winter.
If you pay for electricity it’s a crappy solution but at least you kinda control the temp.
Best fix would be to get a thermostat wired into the LG heaters IMO.
Do you have more than one of the units?
Sounds complicated. Maybe a letter (less detailed than your post) to the landlord with a deadline date by which they must resolve the heat problem, or you will report them to whatever agency should care. Cite the specific section of the lease, or a highlighted photocopy of the lease, and/or any local ordinances, which indicate that the landlord is responsible for the heat. A nice sweater for your dog?
Is it that the landlord pays for heat, but you pay for electricity? So running space heaters is an expense for you, not the landlord?
Have you talked to other tenants to see how they are resolving this?
If it were me, I would stop paying rent until the heating issue is fixed.
I had a lease that said the landlord provided heat, but they arbitrarily decided to rewrite it without heat and raise my rent last year.
I THINK that they have to provide a method of heating that is controlled by a thermostat, which I do not have. I also think this requirement might have to do with it being a multi-family dwelling and not a stand alone, single family unit.
Every time I call the city, they have no idea that this house has 5 separate units in it...
I have three of the window units.
Move!
Space heaters are not intended as sole heat sources. Aging building wiring and space heaters cause fires daily across the country in the winter time. This is one reason new construction requires arc-fault circuit breakers, especially in bedrooms.
As mentioned, live in a motel till spring, life is short enough already, no need to make it shorter.
If your lease included the landlord paying for the heat, and that was not changed, then the landlord is not fulfilling their part of the contract.
Your recourses are:
1. Move claiming breach of contract. The burden will be on you to get back your deposit etc.
2. Withhold rent, based on breach of contract.
3. Withhold last, two-months rent, subtracting out the cost of heating and your deposit.
I am a landlord, and I would not do what you have described to any of my tenants. A contract goes two ways. When I had an A/C go bad, I had a new $5000 unit in place within 24 hours.
To be blunt, the place sounds like an explosion or fire waiting to happen. If it were me — I’d put whatever I didn’t absolutely need into storage and move somewhere else NOW for the remaining time you’re in the state.
Tried both of these.
Finally wrote them a letter reminding them they had to heat the place or else I’d call the city, and the landlord’s response was quote “Why are you doing me like this?”
They evicted one guy who stopped paying his rent until it was fixed.
The other tenants are cold, too, but they’re afraid of eviction and need the place for the location. They also don’t know that they can have reliable heat from the boiler because they’re newer to the place.
Local building code in Ga does not require a thermostat controlled heat source, SC is likely the same.
The only requirement is a heat source capable of heating the living space to a minimum temp of 68 degrees in winter. Sounds like you have that already.
On your coal fireplaces, do not use. Coal produces H2SO4 when it burns and this eats away at the grouting and cement work in the chimney. At least it will need relining before any attempt to use, cost these days on that kind of work is quite high. Between the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning and setting the hidden structure on fire, that coal FP should not be used.
I agree! That's one of the reasons I'm reluctant to leave anything running while I'm gone. The new boiler has automatic shutoffs and all sorts of safety features.
The fireplaces will draw the heat up the chimney and pull cold air in through every crack and crevice in the house. The coal will also stink up the neighborhood and you may get complaints from neighbors. If you do use it you will only get radiant heat and the rest will go up the chimeny.
What kind of cooking stove do you have? Electric or Nat Gas? You can use the nat gas stove as a heater but you need to beware of CO if you do it. If on propane or natural gas, you can hook into it with a small non-vented space heater, depending on your city codes.
I live in an old house on natural gas and have several space heaters. There is enough air leaking in to prevent CO poisoning.
I will always have a natural gas or propane system as when an ice storm knocks out all the electricity it also takes out the central heat as the fans in it run on electricity.
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