We recently moved into a 2 bedroom, 1 bath condo in the south. Our air conditioner did not work when we moved in, so the maintenance person came to our house. He informed us that our air conditioner was too small for the size of our condo, but he would do his best to fix the problem. The air conditioner has a difficult time cooling the condo, and cannot cool under 75 degrees. Our problem--we received our first electric bill. It was 320 dollars! We plan to pay the bill; however, we are going to ask the property management company to fix the issue. What rights do we have as tenants regarding this issue? If they refuse to fix the issue, do we have a case to break the lease and receive our deposit back?
If the air conditioning was part of the deal, then I would think you would have a good argument to break the lease. The fact that the electric bill was so high seems like an aggravating factor.
But you might want to call a few of the tenants groups to get some other opinions.