If you have an unresponsive landlord who’s not responding to your complaints, you have tools you can use to solve this challenge. Read below to learn when your landlord is liable for repairs, what you can do to keep them accountable, and more.
Main Takeaways
- If your home’s maintenance problem impacts your safety and health, your landlord is legally required to fix it. More specifically, they typically must address the issue within 24 hours of your communication that the problem exists.
- If your repair need doesn’t impact your safety and health, your landlord usually won’t be liable for it. The one exception is when the landlord stipulates that they’ll address certain minor issues in their rental agreement.
- Your local laws and/or rental agreement will dictate how exactly you must communicate the problem to your landlord. As a best practice, it’s a good idea to send a letter of written notice by registered mail. This letter should include a description of the issue, when it started, which laws it breaks, and how much time local laws give your landlord to solve the problem.
- If your landlord still doesn’t respond, and your problem is urgent, you could report it to your state housing agency. Finally, as a last resort, some local laws may let you withhold your rent or use some of it to pay for repairs.
How Long Can a Landlord Ignore You?
According to our Baltimore property management company, your landlord will typically have 24 hours to address critical issues. To elaborate, if it impacts your health and safety, they must address it 24 hours after you provide written notice of the problem.
If your landlord also covers less pressing issues, that works differently. In that case, they must fix it by your local laws’ designated timeframe.
When Does an Unresponsive Landlord Break the Law?
An unresponsive landlord is veering into illegal territory when they don’t protect your right to live in a habitable home.
To explain further, landlords are legally obligated to maintain your home to certain standards of habitability. In other words, they must ensure your house is safe and healthy to live in. Each state and locality may have its own laws regarding this. Generally, however, such laws typically include:
- Obeying building codes
- Having working emergency alert systems, like smoke detectors, and appliances
- Removing safety hazards like mold, lead,
- Making sure the plumbing, heating, electricity, building structures, and other essential fixtures are in order
- Handling pest infestations (in multi-family rentals, at least. In single-family ones, tenants usually must handle this issue).
On that note, if your rental has problems that pose a genuine danger to you, your landlord must address them promptly. This holds regardless of whether or not such responsibilities are explicitly outlined in the rental agreement.
To be clear, tenants are on the hook for bringing any maintenance concerns to the landlord’s attention. However, after that, the ball is in the landlord’s court. If an unresponsive landlord fails to act, that’s illegal.
When Aren’t Landlords Liable for Maintenance Issues?
It’s extremely frustrating when landlords aren’t responding to emails or other messages about repair requests. However, if your problem does not seriously impact your health and safety, they may not be required to. That is, it’s optional for them to resolve if it does not threaten your right to a habitable home. For example, if your lights flicker sometimes, that’s not an emergency.
Additionally, if you caused said damage, your landlord is most definitely not on the hook for it. Instead, you will be responsible for handling the issue yourself.
The only exception to these rules is when your lease agreement states otherwise. Put simply, if a landlord states that they’ll handle certain non-urgent matters, they must keep their promises. After all, a rental agreement is legally binding.
How to Deal with a Landlord Not Responding to Complaints
If you have a landlord who’s not responding to complaints, it’s easy to feel discouraged. Don’t fret—there are still things you can do to steer the situation in the right direction. We’ll go through plan A, B, and even C.
Have a Paper Trail
If you haven’t tried so already, you should communicate with your landlord in writing. In doing this, you maintain a paper trail of both you and your unresponsive landlord’s responses to the problem. Your rental agreement or local laws may state which forms of communication (“written notice”) you should use.
When possible, opt for formal registered mail. This way, an unresponsive landlord will have to sign that they have received your letter. It will serve as proof that they have received notice of your concerns at a certain date. At this point, your landlord has a local law-specified amount of time to address the issue.
As an aside, you should keep your notice short and sweet. Steer clear of inflammatory language and stick to the cold, hard facts. List:
- The problem, when it started, and pictures of it (if you have them)
- How the issue is relevant to applicable laws
- The legally designated time your landlord has to solve them
Add nothing more, nothing less. You don’t want to make your relationship more tense than it needs to be.
As we mentioned above, always take photos of the problem at hand. Keep records of when and how you’ve connected with all relevant parties about it. These documents could help you in a dispute.
Reach Out to Your State Housing Agency
If your landlord doesn’t respond to habitability complaints in the legally required timeframe, it’s time to report this violation to the government. Whether it’s an attorney general’s office, code enforcement department, or other entity, your state should have an agency that handles housing habitability complaints.
You can request your local agency to perform an inspection and make a report on your home’s condition. From there, the agency may demand your unresponsive landlord address your issue. After a designated amount of time, they’ll reinspect your home to ensure the problem is gone. If your landlord doesn’t fix it in the allotted timeframe, they will punish your landlord with a fine.
Repair and Deduct or Withhold Rent
If you’ve tried every solution possible to no avail and your issue is habitability-related, local laws may let you forego a portion of the rent. This could come in the form of rent withholding. With this, you do not pay a portion of the rent until the landlord handles your problem. Then, an escrow account may hold your rent as the issue is resolved.
Or, your state may have “repair and deduct” clauses. These allow you to use some rent money for hiring repairmen. Essentially, you should check your local regulations to see what applies to you.
Get More Attentive Property Management with BMG
Unresponsive landlords who aren’t responding to complaints are vexing for even the most patient tenants. However, you have avenues for dealing with this conundrum. For one, you could make a written notice to your landlord. Then, if your problem threatens your home’s habitability, you could escalate it to your state’s housing agency. Finally, as a last resort, you could withhold rent or deduct it for repairs if your local laws permit it.
However, there’s an alternative to this headache. You can choose a home with a tenant-friendly property manager. It may be hard to believe now, but there are property managers who truly care.
Our hard-working property managers work around the clock to make sure you’re comfortable. They don’t stop until they find solutions that make you satisfied. So, if you want a rental with attentive customer service, look at our listings today!
