Paralegal 101: Landlord Tenant Series - Hot Water

Paralegal 101: Landlord Tenant Series - Hot Water

Warranty of Habitability issues may include (a) repairs, (b) clean premises complaints, (c) lack of hot water and/or (d) lack of heating. Here is an interesting bit of trivia: Did you know that if a multiple dwelling building was constructed in New York before mid April 1929 that did not require hot water to be furnished at the time of its original construction a landlord able to prove this would not be under the mandatory requirement to supply hot water 24 hours a day? Hmm... Those base dates mentioned in my previous post are starting to get your attention, eh? Seems every regulation has a start date...

New York tenants actually have a statutory right to hot water, so when exemptions come up people need to be reasonable and pay attention when someone tells you something you do not necessarily want to hear... I am from New York City, so in my neck of the residential woods a building with three or more residential units is considered a multiple dwelling.

New York Multiple Dwelling Law, Title 3, Sanitation and Health § 75 Water Supply:

"1. In every multiple dwelling erected after April eighteenth, nineteen hundred twenty-nine, where space is provided for cooking there shall be in every apartment a proper sink with running water and with a two-inch waste and trap."

"2. The owner of every multiple dwelling shall provide proper appliances to receive and distribute an adequate supply of water, to and in every apartment or suite of rooms at all times of the year, during all hours. Failure in the general supply of water from the street service main shall not be construed as a failure on the part of the owner, if suitable appliances to receive and distribute such water have been provided in the dwelling."

"3. For dwellings three or more stories in height erected on or after April eighteenth, nineteen hundred twenty-nine, and for all dwellings erected after January first, nineteen hundred fifty-one, such supply shall include both hot and cold water at all times of the year, during all hours, except that hot water service shall not be required by this section in a dwelling erected before April eighteenth, nineteen hundred twenty-nine, if the owner establishes to the satisfaction of the department that such service was not furnished or required before such date."

"4. No multiple dwelling shall be erected unless it is connected with a street service water main."

"5. No required sink shall be placed within any water-closet compartment or within any bathroom containing a water-closet."