Hellobee Boards

Start taking that stuff out of the rent. Small things too. Landlord is responsible.

It was written into our lease that we were responsible for replacing furnace filters and any critter control, but all other maintenance is the owners/landlords responsibility.

So if it's not in your lease I would say that your landlord is responsible for all of it!

check your lease - our leases with our tenants say they are responsible for changing the filter... but we do sometimes buy filters when they're on sale and leave them in apartments next to the furnace for them to replace when they should.

Changing the filter helps with YOUR heating bill... so it's to your advantage to get it changed. The landlord doesn't care so much if the filter isn't changed, because it's not their heating bill. It could affect the life of the heater, but not significantly. Also, it could help with your allergies and air quality which the landlord also doesn't care about.

We have our furnace serviced annually and are responsible for all furnace maintenance, including changing the filter (or, most often, the cost of the filter and our tenant just changes it herself). I personally would rather my tenant not mess with the furnace or any other large ($$$) item in the home, even if that means I pay out a little more in covering parts and service call costs. I feel like we are probably in the minority on this though, and it is often the responsibly of the tenant.

Stuff like regular maintenance (ie weather stripping, door pulls, etc) is the responsibility of the tenant, with no reimbursement.

I would check your lease though, for sure. And I wouldn't just start deducting rent. Talk to your landlord first for sure!

Definitely when it comes to heating, the landlord should be taking care of that, at least around here.

we are month to month, but our landlord would absolutely paid for anything furnace related.

My father has been a landlord for years. He owns an apartment building, and he has several tenants. There is only one furnace though with individual control units in each apartment (that I know of). Obviously they're complete strangers and will not meet each other to chip in to fix the issue. When renting, you are paying for a fully functional apartment/house. Not something that needs to be fixed, especially something so drastic as a furnace. Most apartments won't even let you paint your walls, so I'd be pretty miffed if I had to foot the bill for a busted furnace. That's 100% the landlord's job. My dad has properly maintained the building, including repairing the steps, cracks in the walls (it's a very old historic building), and everything else that needs to be fixed. There was an issue with the plumbing. The tenant didn't call a plumber, she called my dad and he had it taken care for her. That's what being a landlord is all about.

In that case the landlord should provide you with the filters and you change them yourself. If our tenant asked us to come over to change a filter I would be ticked...it takes 2 seconds.

If you purchase them then you should be reimbursed