Nj Renter With Cracked Heat Exchanger.

Location: New Jersey

Hi Reddit, my wife and I have rented a condo in northern NJ for the last 11 years, we originally had a roommate with a child but after the first year we parted ways with them and remained in the condo, and worked with our landlords on rent price being lowered. Over the years we had a couple large repairs that needed to be done, ie. broken water heater, pipe burst from cold weather, a broken window pane, but most recently our furnace was acting up and my neighbor who is HVAC certified in NY looked at it for me and we discovered it had a cracked heat exchanger. HERES WHERE IT GETS MESSY…we notified the landlord immediately (on Tuesday) to which there was no real urgency, in fact WE were the ones that scheduled and coordinated HVAC companies to come assess/diagnose and quote repair. We received a quote from one company on that following Thursday and my landlord waited a full 24 hours for a second quote from another company to price shop. Never once did they provide any alternate source of heat or offer a hotel or different property to stay at. Luckily my neighbor provided us with space heaters but this past week in NJ the average temperature was around 0°….last night (Saturday) my landlord texted us saying that we are responsible for pulling and paying the new permit and inspection on the new unit after installation, but gave no timeline of repair. We are certainly not responsible for pulling permits or paying as it is illegal and we responded accordingly saying we are not liable as tenants to pull permits and asked for a timeline on repair.

This is what my wife and I have struggled with the most about this situation…my wife is home more than I am, she has struggled with health issues the last 10 years ie. chronic migraines, fatigue, reproductive health issues, dizziness, difficulty conceiving. And as for that last part, last April we lost our baby at 5 months due to PPROM. We also lost two of our cats to sudden heart complications 3 years apart but both died at the same time of year (late November) after the heat has been running for over a month. Point being, all signs point to us being exposed and poisoned by carbon monoxide for a long time. My neighbor said we were lucky to be alive because of how bad it was cracked. Mind you, for the length of our tenancy, the furnace has NEVER been inspected and we have documented issues with it dating back to 2019.

It is now Sunday and my landlord still hasn’t texted us back in response to us asking for a timeline, our next move is contacting the town but my question is SHOULD WE TAKE LEGAL ACTION AGAINST THEM?