When I moved into my apartment, the landlord told me that all I needed to keep the apartment cool was a fan.
I wondered why they didn’t have air conditioning in the apartment building, but I didn’t ask.
I took the man at his word. Two months later, we were into the summer months. It was sweltering in my apartment, and I needed something more than a fan. I bought a window air conditioner to put in the window, but one of the neighbors complained. She told me they weren’t allowed a window air conditioning unit, and they wanted to know why I was. I didn’t know anything about not being allowed to use a window air conditioning unit. I called the landlord, and he told me that running the AC unit was grounds for having me evicted. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. There was nothing in my lease that mentioned not being able to use window AC units. I didn’t think they could really evict me. Two weeks later, I received notice of eviction. I took the lease to my friend, who was a lawyer. He couldn’t find anything in the lease that even hinted at not being allowed a window AC unit, or that it could be grounds for eviction. When he saw who the landlord was, he shook his head. He said the man was one of the shadiest landlords in the city, and I was up for a fight. The only thing I could do was move, and fight through tenant court about getting back my deposit.