security of building

[ron]

My apt was recently burglarized . 3 men entered my unit thru my kitchen window ( I live on the top floor of a 6 story bldg). They rapelled down from the roof and came into my unit. I was robbed at gunpoint at 3am. This is the 2nd time my place has been hit in the last year- I was not home the 1st time.
My next door neighbor was also a victim of armed robbery and the police feel the intruders access the bldg via the unsecured roof and come in the window.
My question: is the LL required to secure the rooftop and/or to install security bars,screens on our windows? There is also a fire escape right outside my bedroom window. If someone wants to get in, all he has to do is break the window.
Can I withhold rent until this is remedied?
HELP!! I don't want to move if I can avoid it.
Ron

[consigliere]

The roof may be a secondary means of exiting the hallways. If so, the landlord could secure the door with a lock that features a panic bar and an alarm. That way, if someone used the hallway stairs to go to the roof, the alarm would go off.
 
You are responsible for securing your apartment windows. For windows on a fire escape, there are gates that could be installed inside your windows that can be unlocked from inside your apartment without a key. For other windows, external bars would probably be legal.
 

[MikeW]

From a building code standpoint. I only think the LL has a responsibility for securing entry to the building from the street. I've never heard anything about any requirement to secure the roof.

However, if the LL knows (by being informed of an incident by a tenant, for instance) that there is a security problem in a common area (ie. the roof), fails to take action to secure it, and this results in damage to a tenants property and or injury/death of a tenant, the LL may have direct civil liability for those damages, not as a LL/tenant thing in housing court, but as a regular civil case, similar to a normal product liability case.