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commercial building has no heat and nonrespondent landlord

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mbark777

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Kansas.
I am currently on a month to month lease with a new owner in a commercial building owned by an out of town owner with a local landlady overseeing everything. The building we are in has 3 business units with 4 apartments above. The whole building is run off of one broiler heating unit in the basement that heats the whole thing. At the beginning of December it got cold and this heater did not kick on. The landlady contacted the owner about getting repairs done and he would not return calls to her for a week. Finally he told her to get a repairman in there and that if the repairs were going to be expensive he was going to give us a thirty day notice and sell the building.
The repairman showed and gave a $700.00 estimate. Our landlady has since been trying to contact the owner about paying to get the repair done. This has been ongoing now for two and half weeks and he will not return her calls or e-mails. We have since bought a space heater to continue running our business and to prevent the pipes from freezing/bursting and damaging our property inside. We have also been leaving the water on a drip (he pays the water bill) to hopefully prevent freezing pipes. The building is now for sale, we never have been given thirty day notice and are currntly moving our business and leaving this whole mess behind. My questions are:
1. Are we able to sue our owner for the paid rent in December because he failed to supply heat as stated in our lease?
2. Are we able to sue him for the additional costs incurred on our electric bill due to running our space heater 24/7 ?
3. Are we able to sue our new owner for a deposit paid to our old owner prior to his selling the building to this yahoo?
 


HomeGuru

Senior Member
mbark777 said:
What is the name of your state? Kansas.
I am currently on a month to month lease with a new owner in a commercial building owned by an out of town owner with a local landlady overseeing everything. The building we are in has 3 business units with 4 apartments above. The whole building is run off of one broiler heating unit in the basement that heats the whole thing. At the beginning of December it got cold and this heater did not kick on. The landlady contacted the owner about getting repairs done and he would not return calls to her for a week. Finally he told her to get a repairman in there and that if the repairs were going to be expensive he was going to give us a thirty day notice and sell the building.
The repairman showed and gave a $700.00 estimate. Our landlady has since been trying to contact the owner about paying to get the repair done. This has been ongoing now for two and half weeks and he will not return her calls or e-mails. We have since bought a space heater to continue running our business and to prevent the pipes from freezing/bursting and damaging our property inside. We have also been leaving the water on a drip (he pays the water bill) to hopefully prevent freezing pipes. The building is now for sale, we never have been given thirty day notice and are currntly moving our business and leaving this whole mess behind. My questions are:
1. Are we able to sue our owner for the paid rent in December because he failed to supply heat as stated in our lease?
2. Are we able to sue him for the additional costs incurred on our electric bill due to running our space heater 24/7 ?
3. Are we able to sue our new owner for a deposit paid to our old owner prior to his selling the building to this yahoo?

**A: yes to all 3, but #3 will get thrown out. Read your lease and start written demands.
 

mbark777

Junior Member
Question:

Why will number three be thrown out? (so I can be prepared) How do I find out the name of the laws violated or the state statutes or city codes broken?
 

JETX

Senior Member
mbark777 said:
Are we able to sue our owner for the paid rent in December because he failed to supply heat as stated in our lease?
Yes, you can sue him (after all, anyone can sue almost anyone else over almost anything!).
However, if you are successful, you will only get a very small amount of your rent, as you received at least partial benefit of the rent (access and use of the premises).

Are we able to sue him for the additional costs incurred on our electric bill due to running our space heater 24/7 ?
Again, yes you can sue. However, it is very hard to prove such damages in court due to the variables (number of 'cold days of temperature') and the 'additional costs' incurred due to them. Depending on the total bill, you might recover a $100.00 or so at best.

Are we able to sue our new owner for a deposit paid to our old owner prior to his selling the building to this yahoo?
No. You have a 30 day at will lease.... and either of you can terminate that lease. If you decide to move, or the landlord decides to terminate the lease, you can't benefit from your decision.
 

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