Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Arkansas
Can i deduct a portion of my rent ?
My wife and i came home late after a visit to my mother's house over the holidays and noticed that our apartment's carpeted floor was sopping wet. After a few minutes, we found out that the water tank, located in the front hall entrance, was busted and leaking water. It must have been leaking for a long time; because, most of the carpet in every room was drenched with water. After finding out what the problem was, i immediately called for emergency maintenance. Being on Christmas Saturday night, I was informed that the soonest anyone could come out would be tomorrow and was asked if i would like to be put up in one of the demo apts. for the night. We said we would stay in our apartment for the night and wait till tomorrow. No one showed up the next day despite another emergency call and that has forced me and my wife to vacate the apartment. We have no hot water and the carpet in all the rooms are completely saturated forcing us to vacate. There are other minor problems wrong w/the apt that hasn't been fixed in the past 30 days. Can i legally deduct one day from my rent for each day that my water tank and carpet is not replaced? It's not liveable till it is fixed.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Can i deduct a portion of my rent ?
You cannot deduct rent in AR for almost any reason unless your lease specifically says you can. Tenants have little to no rights in this state unles those rights are given in the lease. Call your insurance company about getting someone there to get the water out.
Re: Can i deduct a portion of my rent ?
No, you cannot deduct anything from your rent, unless it says so in your lease for the apartment. You need to stay on the landlord to fix it. You need to ask the landlord to deduct the rent from what you owe.
I would also check to see what all personal items of yours that may have been damaged by all the water. If there is any property of yours damaged, you need to reequest that the landlord reimburse you for their value.
Hopefully, the landlord will take care of any expenses you have had and deduct for time away from apartment. If not, you may want to write him a letter, or you can even pursue a claim in samll claims court (if the total amount questioned is less than $5000.00). But, in AR, you cannot just deduct from the rent, with the lease or landlord saying so.
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