Put the problems into a registered letter to your landlord. The letter should request the necessary repairs and should give your landlord a reasonable time for repairs (a week for example for serious problems like lack of heat, longer for less important problems). The letter sets the stage for taking further action since you want to be able to show you have notified your landlord of the problem and given him/her a chance to fix it. In many but not all states residents can either withhold rent or make repairs themselves and deduct the cost from their rent. In either case there are specific procedures that must be followed. Residents almost everywhere can also call the local building inspection department to report possible code violations.
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