Back in mid-November, an early cold snap reminded many renters that there are few problems more pressing than a chilly apartment.
That weekend, the City of Chicago received more than 300 calls, 100 of them to report inadequate heat, the remainder with complaints of no heat at all. And that was just the first flurry of what’s certain to be many calls during the cold months ahead.
Fortunately, renters with heating problems have several ways to rectify the situation. From emergency shelter referrals to legal action, organizations and departments of your city or village stand ready to help you turn up the heat on your landlord.
Most municipalities enforce laws requiring landlords to meet minimum heating standards during certain times of the year. In Chicago, for example, the city’s heat ordinance requires that, between Sept. 15 and June 1, units be heated to at least 65 degrees between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m., 68 degrees between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m., and 63 degrees between 10:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m., says city spokeswoman Kathleen Walsh.
If tenants suspect those standards are not being met, they should follow a step-by-step procedure, according to George Hausen, staff attorney with the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing in Chicago.
The first move
The first move is to contact your landlord by phone to inform him or her of the heat problem. Next, put your complaint in writing and send the letter certified mail or, better yet, hand-deliver it to your landlord. The letter keeps you in accordance with the Chicago Residential Landlord-Tenant Ordinance, which mandates that complaints about essential services be put in writing.
If these steps fail to garner the necessary response, or if the apartment is simply too cold for habitation, your next move is to contact the city, says Hausen.
You can contact the Mayor’s Office of Inquiry and Information at 744-5000 or TDD 744-8599 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to Terry Levin, spokesman for the mayor’s office.
“We’ll do a couple things,” he says. “First, we determine whether or not it’s an emergency. Are there young children, senior citizens, people with health problems, or anyone who is not safe because of the lack of heat? Those calls are referred to the Department of Human Services. That department will actually transport people from their apartments to warming centers.”
Second, the city will send a buildings department inspector out to the apartment to take a temperature reading. “They’ll verify that the temperature falls below the requirement,” says Levin. “They’ll also determine why the heat is not on. Is the furnace broken? Is it sheer neglect? Has the (gas or electricity) bill not been paid? They will call the landlord, force them to get the heat back on or take them to court.”
Not always landlord’s fault
In some cases, the fault lies not with the landlord, but with improper repairs to the heating system, says Caroline Shoenberger, Chicago consumer services commissioner. “In the event there’s a problem because of faulty repairs, we would assist both landlord and renters by going after the contractors who handled the repairs,” says Shoenberger. “In the event that the contractors refused to do the repairs, there could be legal action. The goal is to remedy the situation as soon as possible.”
The next step, if necessary, is to call other organizations, including the Metropolitan Tenants Organization at 312-292-4988 and the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing at 312-347-7600, both non-governmental renters advocacy groups based in Chicago.
“We’ll counsel people about what their rights are, and refer them to organizations that can help,”says the MTO’s John Bartlett. “For example, we can give them phone numbers of shelters where they can get warm.”
Your compensation
Among the options both the MTO and the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing will outline are those covered by Section 5-12-110 (F) of Chicago’s municipal code. That section, says the Lawyers Committee’s Hausen, allows renters who are not receiving essential services to obtain those services on their own and deduct the cost from their rent.
“The section allows renters to buy a space heater and deduct that cost from the rent,” says Hausen. “After 24 hours (following a written complaint to the landlord), you can withhold from the monthly rent an amount that reasonably reflects the reduced value of the apartment. For instance, if there’s no heat in the middle of February, the apartment is worth almost nothing. If there’s some heat but not enough, the apartment’s worth a reduced amount.”
If the unit is uninhabitable, adds Hausen, the tenant can find alternative housing with a friend or relative and deduct that day’s rent from his rent payment. And if nothing has been done to furnish sufficient heat 72 hours after written notice, the tenant can terminate the rental agreement with another letter, says Hausen.
“If the tenant sued and could prove that he had to stay at the Holiday Inn, he could deduct the rent and also the cost of the lodging (for the days out of the apartment),” he adds. “But he’d have to go to court for that.”
Outside Chicago
Renters outside Chicago should follow the same first step of calling their landlords to report a heating problem. The next move is to call their city or village government offices.
“Every village is different,” says Mary Passaglia, environmental health supervisor with the Village of Schaumburg. “But usually if you call your village and talk to the general operator, she should be able to route you to the proper department.”
In Schaumburg, those calls are sent to the environmental health department, where Passaglia explains that Schaumburg’s housing maintenance and occupancy code requires a minimum temperature of 68 degrees between 6:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. and 65 degrees during all other hours.
“If a resident of an apartment complex, single home or condominium that is rented is not given adequate heat, we’ll contact the owner to make sure they’re aware of the situation,” she says.
The owner must correct the situation within 24 to 48 hours, depending on the temperature of the unit and the difficulty in making repairs, Passaglia notes.
“If we know a landlord is making every possible effort to correct the problem, we won’t take action,” she adds. “If not, we’ll issue a fine and take them to court. We have had success in the courts, because judges don’t want to see tenants taken advantage of.”
What’s the temperature?
In Oak Park, renters are also advised to contact the owner or a custodian of the apartment building. “If they don’t get results, they can call us and we’ll check it out,” says Nancy Richter, housing inspection coordinator with the Village of Oak Park.
“It’s helpful if they have a thermometer and have an idea of the actual temperature in the unit. Our requirements are higher than Chicago’s. It has to be 65 degrees from 11 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. and 70 degrees from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.”
When Oak Park housing inspectors visit an apartment, they verify that a problem exists by using a hand-held thermometer, or by leaving a recording thermometer at the apartment for a day or over a weekend. In addition, inspectors verify that the tenant is using storm windows, has turned on all radiators and is doing all he or she can to make sure the apartment gets adequate heat.
“When we verify that it’s a valid complaint, we contact the landlord and tell him that he needs to find out what the problem is and correct it,” says Richter. “Maybe the radiators just need bleeding. If he doesn’t rectify the problem, we’ll ultimately take him to court–but that rarely happens.”
In Evanston, temperatures must be a minimum of 65 degrees from 6 to 8 a.m., 68 degrees from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and 60 degrees during other hours, says Eugene Wharton, supervisor with the City of Evanston’s community development property standards division.
Once a tenant logs a complaint, says Wharton, “we try to get on it very fast, usually within two hours. On the first complaint, we’ll notify the owner and let him know that we’ve received a complaint from a tenant in his building before coming out. On the second complaint, we’ll just come out.”
When inspectors arrive, they take the average temperature in all rooms of the unit. If a problem exists, the owner is sent a violation notice, asking him to bring the temperature to minimum standards within three to four days.
“But if it’s 44 degrees in the apartment, it could be hours,” says Wharton.
Having given notice, the city reinspects the unit to make sure the landlord has complied. “How soon will depend on the seriousness of the violation,” says Wharton. “It could be as little as two to four hours. If compliance hasn’t been achieved, we’ll give them a court day and issue the court ticket right to the owner.”
The most important thing to remember is that tenants do have municipal allies if a genuine heat problem exists. Says spokeswoman Walsh of Chicago: “We do enforce the ordinance.. . . Don’t hesitate to contact the city if your heat falls below requirements.”
