Major Repairs

[Harryincali]

Yesterday we discovered that our rental unit is in need of immediate major repairs which will require myself & fiance to be displaced for approx. 2-3 weeks.
Our landlord offered to prorate our rent for two weeks time. This works out to $33.00 per diem. This will cover neither resonable/comparable hotel living expenses nor food.
What expenses is the landlord required to cover in such a case?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

First thing to do is check your lease and see if there is anything pertaining to such a situation.

Regarding food, you need to eat whether or not you are at your home and your landlord isn't responsible to pay for your food. Regarding the hotel and unexpected additional expenses, your landlord may not be responsible for that either. You needed to pay to stay somewhere and, if your landlord was responsible for anything, it would be the reasonable cost to stay elsewhere less the amount of rent you would have paid. My guess is that the lease may cover this situation and the best you could do is an abatement of the rent during the period you could not stay. I'm sorry to hear about the situation but you should probably negotiate an appropriate amount and settle based upon some of the perspective I hope I've provided.