Landlord left me in an apartment with a carbon monoxide leak.?
July 5th, 2011 | 
Author: I have been living in this apt for about 2 yrs. I have been falling asleep and not waking up for at least 10 hours. I have been extremely sleepy, and not feeling right. ( I set 3 alarms to wake me up in the morning) none of my alarms can wake me up. I fall asleep for up to 16 hours straight. I lost my job because I would fall asleep at 10 pm, and not wake up until 4 pm the next day. Yesterday, people that want to buy my complex came with inspectors to check all of the apts in my building. They found that the vent to my furnace is disconnected, it was connected by a piece of duct tape that was broken. They were very insistent that I call my landlord, because “I should be dead right now”. I called my landlord and they called a heating guy to come fix it. He informed me that my furnace had not been checked since 2006. I moved in my apts in march 2007. He “fixed” it so that I “should” should be ok until tomorrow. He also informed me that if I should feel sleepy, turn off my furnace and go outside. I want to know what my rights are as a tenant? Can I get an attorney? I have fulfilled my lease obligation and have been on month to month rent for almost a year. I need to know what steps I should take to bring legal action to my landlord. Please help me. Thank you very much.
Posted in Landlord Tenant Law
I’d be getting a motel room and charging the landlord. Then I’d be checking the liability of the landlord under local laws. He may not be required to perform annual maintenace, but I’m sure there’s civil liability.
Get a lawyer.
What kind of legal action do you want to bring against your landlord, and more importantly do you _know_ he’s broken any laws? You can call your local housing authority, or tenant’s rights/advocacy group and ask, but unless furnace inspection is mandated every $period-of-time-that-falls-between-2006-and-now, and/or your landlord is obligated to provide carbon monoxide detectors in each unit and failed to do so, you have no recourse under the law. You might file a civil suit and get some money from your LL, I don’t know.
The risk of carbon monoxide poisoning shouldn’t be news to anybody at this point. It’s been discussed for years, utilities usually include at least one piece of literature about it as heating season rolls around, and there may mention of it in the news or through public service campaign. Your mental bells and whistles should have gone off when you started feeling so tired — I’m not saying that you should have known it was CO, but you had to have known SOMETHING was wrong, and SHOULD have taken some kind of action, even if going to a low-cost/county health clinic, or calling up a nurse hotline at your local hospital, or whatever.
Go to Wal-Mart/K-Mart/Target/Lowes/Home Depot/Sears/wherever NOW and pick up a carbon monoxide detector. It’ll run you somewhere between $30-$50 bucks. I know that may be steep, especially with just having lost your job, but consider what could have happened had those people not come through to inspect. You can also try calling your local fire department [use the local number, 911], and ask if they have one they can give you. Some times they do.