Hi miloquackster-ga,
As I'm sure you've found with any searches you may have conducted
yourself, there is a lot redundant information available regarding the
Washington State Residential Landlord-Tenant Act (RCW 59.18). In fact,
the information that pertains to your situation is briefly mentioned
within this Act. All legislation with respect to landlord-tenant
relations are handled at the state level, so no other legal documents
would apply.
The full text of the relevant law here is available here:
http://www.wa.gov/ago/consumer/lt/textonly.htm
The Act is designed to protect the rights of ALL tenants:
"Who Is Covered By The Law: Rights of All Tenants"
There is a major focus on residential tenancies, in fact, the law
applicable to those exempt from this Act has been grouped together
with the residential laws such that all legislation referring to the
rights of tenants can be protected.
As stated in the Act, "Tenants who are using the property for
commercial rather than residential purposes" are excluded from the
rights provided to a certain set of residential tenants.
The rights of commercial tenants, along with all other tenants who
have been excluded, is a small subset of the provisions protecting
these residential tenants. They are:
1. Right to a livable dwelling.
2. Protection from unlawful discrimination.
3. Right to hold the landlord liable for damage caused by the
landlord's negligence.
4. Protection against lockouts and seizure of personal property by the
landlord.
So let's now apply these rights to your situation (in accordance with
each of the above points:
1. Air conditioning is not a component of a "liveable dwelling", it is
a luxury and therefore AC is the tenants responsibility. Heating is
not a luxury, so you may have a case that this is the landlord's
responsibility.
2. This point does not apply unless you can prove that the landlord
has done exactly what he is denying you of for another tenant in a
similar situation. I don't know your situation well enough to judge if
this is true, but I doubt this is the case.
3. If the landlord is somehow responsible for breaking or damaging
either of the AC or heating units, then he/she is liable to replace it
according to this point. Natural wear of either unit does not apply
here.
4. This has nothing to do with what you need to know.
So to summarize, I would say that there is no legal stipulation
forcing the landlord to repair your AC unit (unless one of the
conditions in (2) or (3) are true) since it is a luxury item. It
appears, however, that the heating system is an important component of
a "livable dwelling" and in my opinion, is the landlord's
responsibility. Be aware, however, that there are no clear precedents
on many scenarios that are supposed to be covered under this act, so
there is a bit of variability. If I were the landlord, I may well
argue that nobody is actually living at the restaurant and therefore
its not his/her problem...there appears to be some grey area but you
do seem to have a case.
I just want to restate the Google Answers is not intended to
substitute professional legal advise, so I suggest you consult a
lawyer for further information should you need it.
If you have any trouble understanding the information above please
post a clarification and I will respond promptly.
Cheers!
answerguru-ga |
