QUESTION
Apartment without running water for several days?
Asked on May 01st, 2024 on Landlord and Tenant Law - Florida
More details to this question:
We have been without running our water in our apartment for approximately 48 hours now. We are currently staying at a hotel but only have one night left and are low income so will not be able to extend the stay. Our landlord has claimed they are trying to fix it but has not provided any updates today. They claimed they would reimburse us for each day that the apartment is untentantable as a credit toward next month’s rent. However, this does not make up for the fact that we have nowhere to stay after tonight with running water, live in an inhabitable apartment, and that this reimbursement credit would not nearly be enough to cover even the few nights we have already stayed at the hotel. For reference, we live in Florida. Is there anything that can be done? Is this legal?
1 ANSWER
Consumer Debt Collector Harassment & Abuse Attorney serving Tampa, FL
Partner at
Tischhauser Law Group
2 Awards
Fla. Stat. 83.56 and 83.51 address the water issue. In most instances, you are entitled to abate the rent or terminate the tenancy - but not to have a landlord pay for your hotel stay. Especially since is hard to claim that no running water due to a plumbing issue results in you needing to stay in a hotel. The landlord will point out that you could just have easily stayed in the apartment and used bottled water until the repairs are made. Especially over a 48 hour period.
Answered on May 07th, 2024 at 8:47 AM
All responses are NOT to be considered legal advice nor to be relied upon in any as such nor to establish any form of attorney/client relationship. Opinions expressed are solely informational and not a substitute for proper legal advice provided by a properly retained after thoroughly researching the issues presented.