Clarification/Follow-up by Qbert on 08/04/03 7:28 pm:
thank you, LisaB. yes, the landlord admits that she's responsible for the repairs, and offered to buy a new A/C, but the next day (which was exactly a week after it first broke), she suddenly remembered that the old A/C is under warranty! this saves her a bundle of money, but costs me approximately 18 extra days that i must suffer in the heat (in addition to the first 7 days before she remembered about the warranty, during which she tried to have her fiancee and his friend fix it).

as to your question, i HAVE been able to reside in the apartment because i have no where else to live (i'm from new york city; i'm just here for a few months). so i'm surviving, but i sweat a lot, it's hard to sleep, and hard to study (i'm a student).

i'm thinking of sending her an e-mail saying that i am not going to pay the 2nd month's rent until the A/C is back in my apartment in working condition, and when it IS fixed and returned, we will then have to discuss how much i should pay.

what do you think? there's a good chance she'll just say "no, you must pay all the rent." also, is e-mailing not a good idea (vs. writing a letter)?

Clarification/Follow-up by Qbert on 08/13/03 11:28 am:
Lisa,

i'll be getting the A/C back tomorrow. that makes it 28 days that it's been broken.

meanwhile, i got a letter from the landlady yesterday saying: i hope you're OK, let me know what happened with the A/C and when you'll be sending this month's rent. please deduct $100 for the cost of the repair of the A/C.

now, since i didn't pay anything for the repairs, i assume that that last line means: take $100 off as a refund for your inconvenience regarding the A/C (mind you, english isn't her first language).

the problem is, in 3 words: i want more!

the apartment is a small 1-bedroom, although many people in the condo call it a studio because the "real" 1-bdrm apartments are much larger. the rent is $650. i don't want to pay more than what the apartment is worth without the A/C, which i think is less than $550 in this neigborhood. in the past, i stayed in a smaller studio apartment in the same neigborhood, without A/C, for only $400 a month (although to be fair, it wasn't in a nice condo as this one is). therefore, this current apartment should be worth about $450 without A/C, in my opinion.

how do you suggest i tell her that? "i'd like to just say flat-out: it's not worth $550 without A/C. i don't want to pay more than $450. also, if anything else breaks in the future, we have to decide how to handle it in a better way". i'll tell her about my previous $400 apartment and i'll explain how much i've suffered the whole month. what do you think?