All winter long the hubs and I have been miserable in our apartment. Heat is regulated by the landlord and the city law dictates that it should be 68 degrees. We haven’t wanted to complain considering our landlords aren’t the most friendly of folk. Twice this winter it had gotten so unbearable that we contacted the landlord and asked him to turn up the heat. Both times he came up into our apartment, felt the radiator and said it was on.
That’s great that it’s on, but a lukewarm radiator is not heating up a large open room. Both times we’ve just let it go. We figured that winter was about over so why push it any further? We could report them to the city but that will make our situation even more uncomfortable.
This weekend we were freezing. Yes, it’s March but it’s also 25 degrees. Once again we contacted the landlord who told us that his apartment was warm and ours should be fine.
Well I’m so thrilled that your apartment is warm, BUT OURS IS NOT. We ended up going to Home Depot and purchasing a cheap $2 thermometer. This way we could prove that our apartment was in fact no where near the legal 68 degrees.
Before we even walk in the door from running our errands Clyde comes out of his apartment like a bull out of the gate. He starts raising his voice at the hubs saying that the heat is on, that’s all he can do. He’s going on about how his apartment is warm and toasty and our radiator is fine.
We try to state our side, that even though the radiator is technically on it is by no means actually heating our space. Hubs finally says, “Look Cylde, we just bought a thermometer and if it gets below 68 we’ll let you know and if nothing comes of it we’re contacting the city.”
Clyde says “Fine, do what you need to do” and then continues to yell at us for a couple more minutes. Finally I close the door in his face because he’s not letting us get a word in edgewise and is refusing to understand that our apartment is cold.
Thermometer reads: 60 degrees.
Just so you know, that’s not warm. A couple of minutes later Clyde’s wife, Bonnie knocks on the door and says, “If the apartment is ever cold please just let us know and we’ll turn up the heat.”
Tail between the legs much? She must have heard our threats to call the city and her husband telling us to go right ahead and realized that’s not so great for them.
We wake up the next morning to a cold apartment.
Thermometer reads: 60 degrees.
I text Bonnie, “Just so you know the apartment is 60 degrees.” She asks if she can come up and look at the radiator and I agree. Guess who storms up behind her? Clyde.
He immediately raises his voice saying that the heat is on and that we need to stop complaining, that’s all they can do. After a couple minutes of him yelling and me asking him to keep it down since hubs is still sleeping I ask him to leave. I tell them I only invited Bonnie up and am not comfortable with Clyde in my apartment. He storms out. I will not allow someone to come into my apartment and try to intimidate me.
Twenty minutes later I have the landlords agreeing to install a second radiator. It might have taken a lot of fighting on our part and a $2 thermometer, but at least we know this is the end of our cold winters. Since we have a two year lease we figured that addressing this problem now will make next winter a bit better.
At least we can hope.
