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Posted by Kerri on June 30, 2000 at 11:31:31:

I've lived in an Illinois apartment for almost 6 years and have not had to ask for repairs until just this year. I've got asthma, and one of the reasons we rented the apartment was for its central air conditioning. It's been broken for 2 months. The landlord was notified immediately. It took them 6 weeks just to get someone to come over and look at it. The repairman has been there 6 times now, and the a/c is still not fixed. They've asked us to run the unit to "see if it works" and it's run for sometimes days at a time without cooling the apartment. The landlord is well aware of my asthma and Chicago summers but will not hire someone else. On several occasions, the temperature in our apartment rose to and stayed at 90 degrees with 75% humidity. I've had three asthma attacks. There are also numerous other problems with our apartment including a hole in our bedroom ceiling that leaks badly and floors where the cement foundation has literally crumbled so we are walking on rocks. The landlord is well aware of all these problems and has not fixed those either.

What rights to I have to get these repairs done? Also, do I have a right to stay at a hotel in times of high heat due to my asthma or expect reimbursement for excessively high power bills due to the unit not working properly?

There is no rent control in our lease. Right now, we do have written lease due to a rent increase, but for most of the time we've lived here (after the first year), there has been no up-to-date written lease. There are 6 units in our building, and it was built in 1979, originally zoned for condos but being rented as apartments. The building is owned by a private husband/wife...no actual business.

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: I've lived in an Illinois apartment for almost 6 years and have not had to ask for repairs until just this year. I've got asthma, and one of the reasons we rented the apartment was for its central air conditioning. It's been broken for 2 months. The landlord was notified immediately. It took them 6 weeks just to get someone to come over and look at it. The repairman has been there 6 times now, and the a/c is still not fixed. They've asked us to run the unit to "see if it works" and it's run for sometimes days at a time without cooling the apartment. The landlord is well aware of my asthma and Chicago summers but will not hire someone else. On several occasions, the temperature in our apartment rose to and stayed at 90 degrees with 75% humidity. I've had three asthma attacks. There are also numerous other problems with our apartment including a hole in our bedroom ceiling that leaks badly and floors where the cement foundation has literally crumbled so we are walking on rocks. The landlord is well aware of all these problems and has not fixed those either. 

: What rights to I have to get these repairs done? Also, do I have a right to stay at a hotel in times of high heat due to my asthma or expect reimbursement for excessively high power bills due to the unit not working properly?

: There is no rent control in our lease. Right now, we do have written lease due to a rent increase, but for most of the time we've lived here (after the first year), there has been no up-to-date written lease. There are 6 units in our building, and it was built in 1979, originally zoned for condos but being rented as apartments. The building is owned by a private husband/wife...no actual business. 


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