Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in North Carolina

We have rented a property through a realestate company for the past 11 months. We have never been late on our rent and have kept the home neat and tidy. The past three months it has been very cold and we have had continued problems with our heat. Each time we called the property company they either called the owner and she sent out her own personal handy man (whom was her friend and was not an hvac tech), or we were instructed to contact that same handy man. He did not know what he was doing and each time would come out and claim to fix it and It was not fixed. After one morning of waking up to it being 48 in my home I called the after hours number extremely upset. Two days later an actual hvac repair man came and fixed it. This whole problem has doubled my power bill making it almost 400 for three months in a row. We also had to stay elsewhere when it was so cold that my 4 children couldn't stand it. Legally can we send them the power bill receipts and the receipts from us having to spend the night elsewhere when we send our rent check and just modify our rent to reflect the amount we had to pay out because of her not properly fixing our heat for so long?


Asked on 1/28/14, 6:36 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Rachel Hunter

No. You did not handle this correct to make a case against the landlord that the property was considered uninhabitable. You can try talking to the landlord and see if they are willing to give you a rent adjustment to make up for these expenses.

And you should not have let this drag on for 3 months. You should have put it in writing. And after the first one or two tries by the handy man, you could have worked something out with the landlord to get it fixed yourself and get abatement of the rent in return. Some landlords will do that. Or you could have truly moved out because the cold and lack of heat made the premises uninhabitable.

I would see what type of adjustment the property management company is willing to make. Is your lease going to be up? Are you willing to stay and renew given that the problem is now fixed? You might be able to use this an incentive in order to secure an adjustment.

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Answered on 1/28/14, 11:36 pm


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