I have been in my apartment for 2 years.
About a year ago the building was sold.
3 months ago i got a notice saying they were replacing the windows and fixing the air conditioner sleeves (the a/c does not go out the window - there is a dedicated sleeve for it) and that the building was not responsible for any damage done during construction.
Before construction i confirmed that my air conditioner worked. My air conditioner is ~5 years old, digital, and has a remote.
2 weeks ago on the first real hot day i tried to turn my a/c on, and it did not work.
i complained to management who at first denied all responsiblity and said that i must have broken the a/c.
after several rounds of shock and disbelief from me they agreed to fix my air conditioner. instead of fixing it, they replaced it with a ~20 year old model that is not strong enough to cool my apartment.
The air conditioning sleeve is behind a custom built tv stand / book case unit which had to be dissassembled in order for the building to access the sleeve.
Between construction and the building swapping my a/c for an old crappy one my apartment has been a shambles for 3 weeks and i am down one perfectly fine a/c.
what can i do? i feel as if i have been cheated of use for 3 weeks and that my property was destroyed.
is there a way that i can recover the rent that was spent for this time?
is there a way i can force them to replace my a/c?
i feel like they are intentionally mis-treating me b/c the lease is up in 3 months and the new owner will want to jack the rent up.
any thoughts?