How to Get Free Apartment Repairs Services From Your Landlord

Normal repairs to your apartment are typically your right as a tenant to receive them for free of charge. Your landlord has a legal obligation to make repairs in a timely manner and cannot charge you for them. These includes leaky faucets, leaks, broken appliances and flooding. Landlords that refuse to make repairs can be sued by their tenants for breaking their own lease that you signed.

• Follow protocol when it comes to asking for repairs. In other words, if your landlord requires you to come to the office and fill out a work order, make sure you follow the rules because this will hasten your repairs.


• Get a timeframe from your landlord on when repairs will be fixed. If it is an emergency such as flooding, they must take care of this within a reasonable timeframe. Keep a record or a receipt of when you requested the work to be performed.


• Read your lease carefully to see what your rights are as a tenant and what your landlord is responsible for. If you signed a lease that excludes your landlord from making repairs for free, you may have a difficult time making them do anything without a charge. On the other hand, most states have clear landlord responsibilities, which do include repairs with no charge to you.


• Don’t harass your landlord. This means that if you put in a work order and they have not responded in an hour to fix your dishwasher and you begin calling and demanding them to fix it, you are not giving them the proper amount of time to respond.


• Do take matters into your own hands if your landlord fails to respond. If you have given your landlord reasonable amount of time to make the repairs and they fail, you can make the repairs yourself and deduct it from the rent. However, be sure to check with your state and the landlord–tenant rights before proceeding because it does vary by state.