Air conditioners - what rights do renters have?
PORTLAND, Ore. - Many families suffering through this week's heat wave have complained to us that despite the sizzling hot temperatures, their landlords will not let them install air conditioners.
We visited an apartment complex in Aloha on Wednesday where tenants were given notices they would be evicted if they installed window air conditioning units or did not remove ones that were already there. The move sparked a number of complaints from the residents at Arbor Creek, who were sweltering in the heat.
On Thursday, a spokesperson for the management company in Dallas, Texas said it was all a misunderstanding over a policy decision that was not communicated to local managers. No one will be evicted, which was certainly good news for the tenants.
While the situation turned out for the better, the incident prompts the question - what does the law say? What rights do tenants have?
We actually found no protections for this type of thing in Oregon's landlord/tenant laws for renters and a legal expert on the laws told us there aren't any.
Sue Ford-Burns is a local attorney who teaches landlord/tenant law at a local college and she said in cases like this, the landlord would usually win in court.
"Most rental agreements have language in them that prohibits the installation of anything without the landlord's permission," she said.
We could not find anything in the Arbor Creek leases that said tenants could not install any type of equipment. However, a mold addendum could have been used because air conditioning units create so much water.
Ford-Burns said renters and owners can work through these types of issues easily and everyone is protected.
"It's in a landlord's best interest, especially in this market, to make a compromise of some kind because the tenant can easily move elsewhere in most cases," she said.
Ford-Burns recommends tenants agree to get renter's insurance. That protects landlords and tenants from liability if a unit falls and hits someone or damages property. And she said property owners may also want higher security deposits to pay for repairs to window sills or siding damaged by air conditioning units. Cost can be a problem for the higher deposit but the insurance is fairly cheap - about $20 a month.