Your Hoboken landlord freezing you out?
06
January
1/6/2010 BUMP:
Each winter, many new Hoboken residents (renters, tenants) email Hoboken411 – to ask about what remedies they may have with a problematic landlord that doesn’t keep their building warm enough.
So rather than print some of the several dozen emails received this year – I’ll just bump this old Hoboken Legal Beagle column from 2008! Stay warm, Hoboken!
Cold in the ‘Boken
What exactly IS the landlords responsibility when it comes to heating an apartment?
“My question is about heat. What – if anything – is a landlord required to do when it comes to heating an apartment. I just moved into a new place in Hoboken and the heat is OFF most of the time. From the time I get home from work to the time i wake up – the radiator is cold! I have no control over my heat and pay for it as part of my rent. And it’s REALLY cold at night. (and during the day too) I called to complain once. But before I push it and become the “new tenant who complains” I want to know my legal rights. SO – i’m just wondering if there are any laws in this city or state that regulate how warm the landlord is required to keep the place. Thanks! -Cold in the Boken!“
Hoboken411 Legal Beagle Says:This is a very common problem throughout the world I would say. In Hoboken, the City Housing Inspectors office (201) 420-2041 enforce substandard living conditions.
State law requires that from October to May, landlords maintain the temperature in multiple dwelling units at 68 degrees between 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. and 65 degrees at other times.A great summary of your rights are here and here.
And if you don’t want to be the tenant that complains you will be the tenant that is cold. The laws in New Jersey protect you from eviction and the laws in Hoboken control your rent. So get a thermometer and check to see if your apartment is colder than set forth above, but if Al Gore is correct this is all probably a moot issue anyway.
14 Responses to ** Your Hoboken landlord freezing you out? **
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April 8th 2008 - 10:36:12 |
Are you sure the valves on your radiators aren’t closed?
A better questions is…Would you rather be cold or hot? My apt goes up to 96 degrees in the winter. I was so gd hot that I had do something about it. My first winter I opened all my windows and had fans sucking cool air in. That only dropped it to about 85 though. So, this past summer I decided to hack up the valves on the radiator and as soon as the heat came on for the winter, the valves blew off. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone but since the valves on my radiators were busted, it meant that the entire building couldn’t get heat until they were fixed. When you have several angry, cold tennants in stead of just one, the landlord seems to move a little quicker. The best part is now that I have new valves, I can control my own heat.
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April 8th 2008 - 11:27:04 |
tbedna1 wrote:
You are awesome.
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April 8th 2008 - 12:23:43 |
Not that you should forgo your rights but a somewhat simple remedy would be a $10 – $20 space heater.
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April 8th 2008 - 12:26:30 |
Honestly, people need to stop being scared of calling city hall.
I have had problems in the past, including one issue with the heat and they have been very responsive to my complaints.
The only downside to what I often read on 411 is that the city in general is broadly accused of being lazy, incompetent and worthless. While in some areas, this could be pretty close to the truth, it’s really bad to generalize so much.
Just my .02 for the day.
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April 8th 2008 - 12:45:09 |
Downtown wrote:
I did that, but the downside is that those things are horribly inefficient. My electric bill for last February was higher than it had ever been. Not to mention the fact that you can’t buy a space heater for $10-$20.
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April 8th 2008 - 13:25:48 |
Easy-E wrote:
Or that it’s a fire hazard!
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April 8th 2008 - 14:13:27 |
Katie_Scarlett wrote:
Honestly…..I know. haha.
Seriously though. I know exactly what Easy-E is going through. Not ever having dealt with radiators before, I went through the exact same thing that he/she is going through. I tried to regulate the heat via the old valves on the radiators and that ended up pissing everyone in the building off because it caused the pipes to bang like a biotch at all hours of the day/night. Of course, I got the, “You can’t control the heat” speech and so that’s when the fans came out because that’s how “everyone else in the building controlled the heat”. F that. The humidity dropped to like 10% and I couldn’t walk around my apt without lightning bolts coming off the tips of my fingers. That’s when I plugged the steam valves on the radiators and tried to heat the apt. with a space heater/humidifier combo. My electric went up through the roof and I got pissed because I shouldn’t be the one footing the bill for that. That all occurred during the winter of 06/07. The whole valve replacement situation happened in like Oct 07 and It’s been a constant 73 in my apt ever since.
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April 8th 2008 - 16:41:34 |
so the ignorant neighbors cost you comfort and cash. and you were the source of the resolution? did they apologize? buy you a case of booze? throw you a party? i’d train a dog to p1ss on their doors every night.
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April 8th 2008 - 16:54:33 |
strand tramp wrote:
I wish I had trained a dog to p1ss on their doors.
At one point I seriously considered this -> http://www.poopsenders.com but they aren’t even worth the money that it costs.
When it came down to it, knowing that they are still sweating their @$$ off and using fans to cool their place puts just as big a smile on my face.
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April 8th 2008 - 18:47:22 |
There a old trick my father use to do. Every fall he would take the relief valve off and soak them in white vinger. He left them in for a couple of hours and then put them back,it cleaned out all of the gunk and there never was a problem.
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April 8th 2008 - 19:57:32 |
Which brings up another point – if you have a forced hot water system, there’s a good chance it’s just air in the pipes keeping the hot water from reaching your apartment. Where I live is notorious for that, especially if there’s a couple of warm days followed by cold. Open up the little bleed valve and see if it gurgles out. It’s usually at the beginning or end of the run of pipes through your apartment.
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April 8th 2008 - 22:55:35 |
Also on each radiator there is a square looking value. You can purchase the key at Ace Hardware for like $2. What you need to do is when the pipes feel hot, open the value till water starts to come out. Do this for every room. You might have air in the radiators. If you have base boards you have to bleed the system from the unit itself.
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January 6th 2010 - 23:25:03 |
Per-411, re comment “Al Gore,” when will you get it? It’s global climate CHANGE — a lot of which is WARMING (frightening melting of polar caps, Greenland, and glaciers WW) as well as climate CHANGE — some of which is warmer and otherwise just change which f’s with crop growing plans, insect control, assumptions re building foundations on permafrost, and more.
I look at my own photos of the glacier on top of Kilimanjaro when I hiked my ass up there in ‘97 vs. what the same glacier looks like now — f’n frightening.
You have argued that’s it’s a natural cycle. So, let’s say it is. We can still try to change green house gasses to off-set “natural cycle” (which I don’t believe it is). B/c regardless of cause, we are now living on a globe that has fresh water ice very quickly desalinating salt sea water which impacts the ecosystem up and down … killing off all sorts of land-based animals/marine life, effecting sea levels, under which much of Hoboken already resides.
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January 6th 2010 - 23:32:45 |
heartland.org/policybot/results/142...bunks_Kilimanjaro_Glacier_Myth.html
In response to lhoward222 who said:
I look at my own photos of the glacier on top of Kilimanjaro when I hiked my ass up there in ‘97 vs. what the same glacier looks like now — f’n frightening.
You have argued that’s it’s a natural cycle. So, let’s say it is. We can still try to change green house gasses to off-set “natural cycle” (which I don’t believe it is). B/c regardless of cause, we are now living on a globe that has fresh water ice very quickly desalinating salt sea water which impacts the ecosystem up and down … killing off all sorts of land-based animals/marine life, effecting sea levels, under which much of Hoboken already resides.
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