Landlord Provides Maintenance

Q: If something in my apartment needs repair, what do I do?

A: After submitting written notice to your landlord describing the nature of the repair, your landlord will have 14 days to resolve the problem. If after 14 days it has not been resolved, you could file with housing court to have your rent held in an escrow account until the repairs are completed. If the repair is of an urgent nature, such as no heat, running water, or electricity, you can file an Emergency Tenant Remedies Action (ETRA) after giving your landlord 24 hours to resolve the infraction. With an ETRA, your case will be heard in housing court within 2 days.

Additional notes: The filing fee that is required to file for an escrow account or an ETRA hearing are refundable if you win, as your landlord will be required to reimburse you. Making the repairs yourself and deducting them from your rent (Repair & Deduct) is not an acceptable alternative to using the court as a remedy. When your landlord comes to your apartment to complete the repair, advance notice must be provided. This notice is generally sufficient by either a note under your apartment door 24 hours in advance or gaining your advance permission to enter the apartment.

Return of Your Security Deposit

Q: After I've vacated my apartment, how long until my security deposit will be returned to me?

A: Provided that you have given your landlord written notice in advance, which is generally sixty-one (61) days, and counting from the date that you vacated your apartment, your landlord has twenty-one (21) days to return your security deposit, with any interest, to you. If for any reason the landlord wishes to withhold any portion of your deposit, a letter stating what portion is being withheld and why must be mailed to you within twenty-one (21) days as well. To facilitate this process, it is advisable that you include an address where you will be receiving mail after you've moved in the letter that you provide to the landlord indicating your desire to vacate the apartment. If after twenty-one (21) days the landlord has not provided you with either a check for the full amount of your deposit plus interest or a letter giving reasons why all or part of it is being withheld, you may file an action in conciliation court whereby your landlord will be required, if found to have not complied with these requirements, to pay two times your deposit, plus two times the interest that you had earned on your deposit, and up to $200 in punitive damages to you.

Breaking Lease for the Military

Q: If I have been called to active military duty, am I entitled to terminate my lease agreement?

A: Yes. As part of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940 (SSCRA), Chapter 4, Section 304, you may deliver notice to your landlord after the "date of the beginning of" your "period of military service" for any lease agreement that was executed prior to your entry into military service. This notice will serve to terminate your lease effective "thirty days after the first date on which the next rental payment is due." For example, if you deliver notice to your landlord on May 13, your lease agreement will terminate as of July 1. As for your security deposit, you are entitled, according to the Act, to receive it "upon termination of the lease."

Keep in mind that this Act supplements only this particular aspect of State law under the circumstances described.

Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940, Chapter 4

Landlord Fails Utility Payments

Q: If my landlord is responsible for utilities and stops making payment, do they become my responsibility? How can I get my landlord to pay?

A: If it is contracted that your landlord pay certain utilities and your landlord stops making such payments resulting in the disconnection of your utilities or the threat of a disconnection, you may pay the balance of the utilities to the utility company and deduct that payment from your next payment of rent. Doing so is conditional on the fact that the utility service has not been discontinued because of your misuse of it, you have provided the landlord with 48 hours of written notice (or 24 hours subsquent to giving oral notice), and the utility service remains unpaid just before the time of your intended rent payment. Be sure to obtain proof of payment for the payment that you submitted to the utility company and include that proof with your rent payment to your landlord.

Sending Traceable Mail

Sending correspondence to a landlord that doesn't wish to receive it can be difficult, especially when you need to know that it arrived. Here are some suggestions:

1) Send correspondence along with your rent payment. If the landlord cashes the check, they've obviously received your note.
2) Send your letter via certified mail. It isn't necessary to obtain a return receipt, as your mailing can be tracked online at usps.gov using the label number. If the letter is returned to you unclaimed, resend it using either option one or three.
3) Have someone who does not have a stake in your concern mail the letter to the landlord via first class mail with postage prepaid. If its receipt becomes an issue, that person can vouch that it was sent.

No Heat?

Minneapolis Ordinances require that landlords provide heat to their tenants whenever the temperature has dropped to 60 degrees Fahrenheit or below for any continuous twenty-four-hour period.

The City of Minneapolis Ordinances, Chapter 244 reads:

244.430. Heating facilities. The owner of every building containing habitable rooms shall provide heating facilities and shall be required to see that said heating facilities are properly installed, safely maintained and in good working condition, and that said facilities are capable of safely and adequately heating all habitable rooms, bathrooms and toilet rooms located therein to a temperature of at least sixty-eight (68) degrees Fahrenheit, measured at a distance of thirty-six (36) inches above floor level, and not closer than thirty-six (36) inches from any wall at all times when the outside temperature is at the design level or above.

244.460. Supplied heating to habitable rooms or parts thereof. Every owner or operator of any building who rents, leases or lets for human habitation any habitable room contained within such building on terms, either expressed or implied, to supply or furnish heat to the occupants thereof, shall maintain a minimum temperature of sixty-eight (68) degrees Fahrenheit, measured in accordance with section 244.430, in all such habitable rooms and bath and toilet rooms let in conjunction therewith, whenever the outside temperature is sixty (60) degrees Fahrenheit, or below, for any continuous twenty-four-hour period.