Spanish Lake renters seek answers as AC goes out for weeks

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – Geoffrey Cooney is used to Missouri summers. But this time around, he has had to bear it with no air conditioning.

“This is St. Louis. It ain’t done yet. It’s still going to get hot,” he said.

His AC stopped working a month ago at the Residences at Bella Vista in Spanish Lake. Cooney showed us seven maintenance requests he submitted starting Aug. 12, and he says it is still not fixed.

“I’m not looking for them to go out of their way to do anything. But I pay close to $900 in rent a month, and I’m disabled,” he said.

With temperatures reaching 100 degrees a couple of times since his first maintenance request, Cooney said his wife ended up in the hospital. He sent a letter to his landlord from a licensed clinical social worker.

It says her medical condition was “exacerbated by excessive temperatures” and she would “greatly benefit from appropriate home cooling devices.”

FOX 2’s calls to the leasing office and corporate office went unanswered. When we showed up in person, we were asked to leave the property.

There is no specific right to air conditioning written in Missouri law, but depending on how a lease is written, there could be some contractual recourses. Attorney and program director Daniel Buran with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri says that is rarely the case.

“I don’t know if I’ve seen any leases in the city of St. Louis or the state of Missouri that included air conditioning in it. I don’t think most landlords put it in there for that reason,” he said.

Buran says landlords are required to provide a livable environment. In legal terms, there is an “implied warranty of habitability.” Buran says Missouri case law shows working heat would be included in that but not air conditioning. Buran thinks that could change some day.

“There’s a very good argument to be made for that, especially with the increased heat over the past few decades; with the prolonged heat domes and things like that that we have, the danger could get enough that an attorney could argue that,” he said.

Cooney needs a fix now, though.

“Come fix mine. I paid enough in rent, and it’s hot. I have asthma. My wife has asthma. Just fix it,” he said.

FOX 2 has left multiple messages with the apartment’s corporate office in Indiana. Legal Services of Eastern Missouri has a list of resources for tenants, including advice on apartment repairs.

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