What recourse do I have if my landlord won't fix my maintenance issue?

Question

I live in Denver and the summers are hot. I have a window unit air conditioner that works, but shorts my apartment. I have to reset the circuit breaker in the apartment every time. I've contacted her and she told me the maintence guy came and said I had too many plugs in the outlet. I've reduced the number of plugs in the outlet, but the problem still persists. I've contacted her to let her know, but she will not return my phone calls, or my e-mails. It's been 3 weeks. What can I do? There is a maintenance clause in the lease saying she is responsible, but is a/c an amenity in the state of Colorado where she doesn't have to fix it? My apartment get extremely hot, and I've bought fans, but it doesn't get the heat out. I've opened windows, and there's still a problem. I've tried to call housing authority counseling but there's nobody to talk to. I seriously have no where to turn. Please help!

Answer 1

Whats she means is that you are overloading the circuit  with the breaker. The only ways to take care of this are 1. reduce the load by  disconnecting other appliances, or 2. putting in a separate circuit breaker to take care of just the air conditioner. This latter may need to have a stronger wire going back to the main breakers.

Answer 2

I had a kitchen circuit that would trip every time I tried to use the toaster at the same time as the microwave. Anyway...

Shut off the circuit breaker and determine which outlets are wired together in that circuit. Unplug everything from those outlets except the AC. The AC will be the only appliance on that circuit. If the circuit still trips, then you have a maintenance issue that the landlord should fix. If the circuit doesn't trip, then plug back in one appliance/lamp/whatever at a time, allowing the AC compressor to kick in before plugging in the next thing. Eventually you'll find the number of things you can have plugged into that circuit without tripping the breaker. Move the other things to a different circuit.

Answer 3

Sounds to me more like an electrical wiring problem than an A/C problem - & THAT could be a fire hazard! Maybe get in touch w/ the fire dept.? If the A/C came w/ the apt. then I would say it is covered by the maintence clause in your lease - & the wiring certainly is! I'd say contact your manager 1 more time via both phone (leave a msg.) & e-mail, ref. to ALL other contact attempts, then save the e-mail (& previous ones if poss.) so you have documentation of your complaints & concerns. Also tell her POLITELY that if the problems are not resolved within a set time period that you will break your lease & move. The property mgr. is not living up to her side of the lease, which releases you from yours.

BTW - if the problem does get fixed don't expect a window unit to cool an entire apt. Those things are usually for only the room in which they are installed.