[susuenoble]

Hello,

My fiancée and I have lived in our apartment for almost three years. It's a two bedroom on the second and third floors. Our rent includes HEAT, water, sewar, garbage. The heat is controlled by the landlord which is fine by us. However, the thermostat is in the downstairs apartment (supposedly under lock and key). Our apartment has NO thermostat. With our first neighbor we only ever had one issue of the heat not running properly, and was quickly resolved. He moved out about two years ago, and since then it's been a headache. Some examples are one time the heat did not run for almost 12 hours, though it was below freezing (it was end of November, folks) outside. It finally kicked on at four am. Another time is the downstairs neighbor had his air conditioner running, which kicked on the heat, causing us to sweat on a fifty degree night. Most recently though is the past three rather chilly weeks. The heat did not run once, and many nights it was below forty (one night it got down to freezing!). We recently approached our landlord yet again about the heating issue, and he called us paranoid and refused to have any service done to it (because it really could be a mechanical issue), nor would he consider a slight kick back for this past months rent (which we knew he would never go for). We were under the assumption he had turned the heat off for the season, causing it not to turn on. He told us he hasn't done so yet, and will be the weekend of May 31st. We feel we pay for heat in with our rent, we should have heat when it's cold out. However when the neighbor first moved in and it was cold, we asked the neighbor to turn on the heat, and he said he would, and the heat turned on just fine within minutes of us knocking on his door. We were told from day one under no circumstances would the neighbor with the thermostat have any access to it, and would not be able to change the temperature.
So, that's the long and short of it. At this time we are considering a move, but until then we need to know what our rights are as tenants regarding heat. Yes, the summer months are upon us, and we won't need it. However, enough is enough, and we feel there has to be some sort of recourse to this. Though we don't plan on living there for yet another winter, it could happen, and we do not want to freeze for yet another 5 months.
Does anyone have any suggestions, or insight, please?

In Regards,

Freezing in PA.

[jolienoire]

Pennsylvania Landlord Tenant Law

Hope this helps

[ScottGem]

You need to document the problems. Take pictures of a thermometer next to a TV broadcast or something to show the time and date.

[froggy7]

And it is possible that the problem is with the downstairs tenant. If, for example, they have a large-screen TV close to the thermostat, it may make the local area around the thermostat hot enough that the heat doesn't kick on. I do have to wonder about why they aren't complaining about the temperature, especially since heat rises, and they should be colder than the upstairs tenants.