I HAVE BEEN RENTING A HOUSE FOR 3 YEARS. 2 WEEKS AGO I NOTICE THE KITCHEN BASEBOARD WAS GETTING WET, THEN I WENT OUTSIDE AND THE STUCCO HAD ...

Question

I HAVE BEEN RENTING A HOUSE FOR 3 YEARS. 2 WEEKS AGO I NOTICE THE KITCHEN BASEBOARD WAS GETTING WET, THEN I WENT OUTSIDE AND THE STUCCO HAD A BIG WET SPOT. I NOTIFIED THE LANDLORD, SHE SENT THE REPAIR PEOPLE AND THEY TOLD ME THAT WE WOULD BE WITHOUT A KITCHEN FOR 2 WEEKS. MY LANDLORD TOLD ME TO DEDUCT $300.00 FROM THE RENT. THERE ARE 3 PEOPLE LIVING IN THE HOUSE AND I DID THE MATH OF $300/31=$14.28/3=$4.76 A DAY. wHAT IS A FAIR AMOUNT TO DEDUCT. BECAUSE $4.76 PER DAY WILL NOT PAY FOR 1 MEAL. LET ALONE 3 MEALS A DAY X3.

Answer

Well first off, your math is wrong. You will be without a kitchen for two weeks, not 31 days. Second, you are already dividing by 3, so even if it was $14.28/day, that would be $4.76 per meal, not per meal per person. But of course it's not, because $300/31 is NOT $14.28. The real math is $300/14= $21.43/day. Next, the landlord is not obligated to buy your meals for the time you don't have a kitchen. One POSSIBLE measure of you rent adjustment would be how much EXTRA your meals would cost due to not having a kitchen. If you are like most families, you actually COOK breakfast at most a couple of days a week, and COOK lunch even less often. So we're really talking whether an extra $20+/day covers your EXTRA expense for meals. Sounds fairly reasonable. Technically, however, the measure of your compensation should be the diminished rental value of the house without a kitchen. In other words, what would the property rent for if it had no working kitchen, say only a toaster oven, microwave and fridge. You would take the difference in rental value that way, versus your rent, divide by 30, then multiply by 14 to get your diminished value of your leasehold.