Montecito Pointe residents endure heat as power outage prolongs into fourth day

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Residents of the Montecito Pointe apartment complex in northwest Las Vegas are grappling with sweltering conditions after a power outage left them without electricity and air conditioning.

The outage, which began Friday, has left tenants in Building 13 struggling to cope with the heat, with no clear timeline for when the issue will be resolved.

Lynn, a resident, said, “Friday morning, the air conditioning went out.”

Another resident noted, “Friday night I noticed the AC was going out at one in the morning and then on Sunday morning, Saturday morning the power and AC were off completely.”

Sara, another tenant, expressed concern throughout the outage, saying, “I’ve heard from other residents that it’s going to be another five to seven days.”

The lack of power has forced some residents to seek alternative accommodations.

“We’ve been having to go to hotels 188 a night, like I can’t even afford to go to another hotel for the next five to seven days,” Lynn said.

“We’re just managing the best we can, and we can’t go anywhere. We have two cats in a lizard, no hotel will take us,” one resident said.

Residents have expressed frustration over the lack of communication and support from the apartment management.

Martyn, a tenant, said, “They could work with the 12 units that are being affected, which is up to 48 people in each, not each unit, but the entire building, to just kind of work with them, their animals, they understand this is one of the hottest weeks of August right now and they’re just not helping us out.”

Ashley added, “I do wish that they would the apartment complex would have a different attitude about it by telling me that there’s no loss to me it shows me that mentally and their the idea of what’s going on is perfectly fine to have no power no water no no help no no AC that they’re telling me that that’s okay.”

Attempts to reach the complex and management company for comment were unsuccessful.

Under state law, your landlord is required to maintain your rental property in a habitable condition.

“Habitable condition” generally means that the rental property is livable so that an average person could reside there in reasonable comfort.

Your landlord must also provide certain “essential items or services,” unless your lease says differently.

“Essential items or services” generally means that your rental property has heat, air-conditioning, running water, hot water, electricity, gas, a functioning door lock, and other essential items or services.

If you are having a problem with habitability or an essential item or service, you can follow the five steps below to give your landlord written notice of the problem and an opportunity to fix it.

• Step 1: Is your problem “essential” or “nonessential”?
• Step 2: Mail your landlord a written notice
• Step 3: Wait to see whether your landlord repairs
• Step 4: Enforce your rights if the landlord fails to repair
• Step 5: Watch to see what your landlord does

Some residents say they were offered empty units with running electricity, but found them to be dirty and without hot water.

Others were told to find their own accommodations.

News 3 previously spoke with Ryan McConnell, an attorney with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, who said, “Essential services need to be repaired by the landlord within 48 hours of that notice that the tenant gives the landlord.”

Under the law, the 48 hours only include business days, and the renter must notify the tenant in writing.

“Unfortunately, if your A/C breaks on a Friday morning, your landlord has until Monday evening to fix it.”

If the unit is not fixed and the landlord has not tried to mitigate the problem, McConnell says there are several options renters have.

“They can get a portable A/C unit on their own, which means they do have to spend money, but they can deduct that cost from their rent after those 48 hours. Secondly, they can find any other reasonable affordable housing if it’s just unbearable, they have kids, they have pets — they need to go to a motel for a couple of days, they can do that and their rent abates during that period; which means they are not going to be charged for rent during that period,” saidMcConnell.

He says the last option, if the A/C unit is not fixed promptly, is withholding rent.

To learn more about those rights, you can click here.