Q: My new apartment came with a backed up kitchen sink. What can I do?
I moved into my Baltimore County apartment 3 weeks ago and the sink was already partially backed up with a broken garbage disposal. I've made several different type of attempts to get the landlords to fix it, but they are taking their time. This has made the kitchen unusable for cooking as it can't be cleaned without potentially flooding the apartment, causing hundreds of dollars in takeout just to eat once a day along with groceries slowly rotting in the fridge. What can I do in this situation, as I am running out of options?
A:
Maryland law requires that rental units be livable with essentials like heat and running water. Whether a backed up drain makes property unlivable or not would heavily depend on the circumstances. A single slow moving drain probably does not render property unlivable but if there were no working sinks at all and it was impossible to wash hands or dishes, it probably would be unlivable. This forum isn't designed to analyze nuanced facts of a specific case and if you felt the situation warranted getting an attorney involved you could contact an attorney who focuses on landlord/tenant matters. However, it may be better to at least attempt to resolve on your own without paying an attorney.
Generally the best way to resolve an issue with a property condition is through the Landlord or Property Manager. The lease generally requires that repairs go through the Landlord. That said, if the Landlord refuses to address an obvious issue after repeated requests and it costs more to deal with the issue than it would to fix it, a Tenant might consider altering the Landlord that if nothing is done by a certain date the Tenant intends to pay for a professional to do the repair (in this case, a licensed plumber) and seek reimbursement from the Landlord. (In some cases a Landlord will be fine with a Tenant coordinating the repair)
In extreme circumstances, when a Landlord refuses to make essential repairs after a reasonable amount of time (for example, if a landlord refused to repair a broken heater for a week in the dead of winter) Maryland law allows a Tenant to file something called "rent escrow" in the District Court. The tenant basically pays rent money to the court until the situation is fixed and the court decides who gets that rent money for the period of time with the serious defect. You can read up about rent escrow at the Maryland court's website: https://www.courts.state.md.us/legalhelp/webinars/rentescrow
Sometimes poor conditions at a rental unit are also code violations. In that circumstance, a tenant may consider contacting the applicable county office to have an inspector come out.
While not legal advice, I hope the general information above helps.
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