Renters in one Logan Square apartment complex said their landlord left them without heat for more than two weeks this past December, violating the Chicago Heat Ordinance.
Residents of the complex at 2330 and 2338 North Spaulding Avenue said that the building’s owner, well-known local investor Mark Fishman, didn’t address the property’s heating issues for more than two weeks despite repeated requests for help, Block Club Chicago reported. Temperatures in the buildings dropped to as low as 50 degrees, which is below the legal minimum temperature of 68 degrees during the day or 66 degrees at night.
“Our apartment got below 50 in the kitchen, below 60 in every other room,” resident Balam Trybajohnes told the outlet. “On our windows we were growing ice, and underneath the door ice was forming. Generally, it was very, very cold.”
According to residents the building’s heat started to falter on Dec. 10 and crews didn’t show up to fix the problem until Christmas Eve. In addition, tenants weren’t provided with supplemental heating solutions until the same day the repairs began.
Tenants had to buy heated blankets and additional space heaters, which also contributed to higher power bills. Some residents even had to stay with friends or family somewhere else altogether.
Trybajohnes said he submitted seven maintenance requests about the heating problems and each one was marked “resolved” almost immediately without any work being done.
Most of the building’s 45 tenants were affected by the heating issues. Trybajohnes is among 20 who are withholding their rent due to the loss of heat and subsequent expenses. They said they won’t pay for the second half of last month and that they want to be refunded for what they did pay since the apartments were “unlivable” for several days.
“It’s really the only thing we have to push for a change, when it comes to being a tenant and a renter,” tenant Miles Bennett Hogerty told the outlet. “All we are to this property management company is a guaranteed check, so the goal of this rent strike is to get our money back … all we’re asking for is not to be paying for an apartment that was uninhabitable.”
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