My apologies if this isn't particularly appropriate for this sub, I just thought I'd ask, since it seems to run the gamut of all financial things.
My roommate and I moved into a rental house on 9/4, for which we pay $1100/month. I'd previously toured the place twice and picked it specifically for the kitchen, which had a brand-new matching stove and refrigerator. The lease guaranteed those two things, along with working AC and heat.
The day we moved in, we found that the AC was completely non-functional, and not only had the new fridge been switched out with one made in 1986 (we googled the brand and model), the replacement fridge didn't even work.
We alerted them to both these issues and were told they'd be fixed ASAP, since no AC and no fridge in the sweltering southern summer heat made the unit nearly unlivable. (I know that this probably sounds special snowflake-y, but none of the windows opened, either, so there was no ventilation. The window issue was rectified after a few phones calls, when we finally started mentioning "point of egress" and city codes.)
On 9/11 (one week after we moved in), we finally got a new AC.
On 9/16, we finally got a new fridge. They brought back the original fridge that had been shown with the unit, and it works perfectly.
We've asked the property management company to prorate our rent for this next month, specifically mentioning the inconvenience their breach of lease caused, and their response was, "of course! We already reduced your rent by $50 for the four days you didn't live there!". We were less than enthused by this.
How much would it be appropriate to ask for in rent reduction? My roommate is insistent that we shouldn't have to pay for the days that we didn't have AC and and fridge, at the very least, and would prefer not to pay at all for the days we were fridge-less, but this to me sounds to be asking for too much. I'm afraid to become "problem tenants" in the eyes of the management company, as we absolutely love everything else about the home and will hopefully be renewing our lease at least once.
We are social workers who live frugally in our expensive, major southern city. Having no fridge to store groceries or leftovers for two weeks, in addition to the cost of fans to keep the house habitable, has been very expensive for us. I don't want to be greedy or rude, but I would like to be fairly compensated for the extra expenses.
We would really appreciate some perspectives on what would be fair to ask for. Many thanks.
Submitted September 18, 2015 at 07:55PM by therearedozensofus12 http://ift.tt/1W83lci personalfinance
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