New York, Rental Apartment in Chinatown has issues with Gas Connection. Can I get rent abatement

Question

I live in a rental apartment in Chinatown, New York area.
My building had its gas turned off by ConEd because of a faulty pipe. Talking to the super, it seems the landlord as no immediate plans to fix this.

With my next rent check, I intend to ask for a rent abatement until the gas supply is resumed. My rent is about $2000. There is no possibility of forming any sort of tenant group.

What is a typical rent abatement percentage for such a situation.

Talking with the landlord's surrogate, I believe the landlord will give the letter I write to a lawyer, and then reply that he will not agree to the rent abatement. Is there any language, non threatening language, I should place in the letter, so that the lawyer is more apt encourage the landlord to pay?

I have a good relationship with the landlord's surrogate and always pay on the 1st of the month.

Answer 1

While abatements and/or legalese may get you there, this is a practical issue at hand here so if what you want is to get the work done (pipe fixed), I would skip the confrontation via formal action of writing letters and going through lawyers.

What I would do instead is get them to agree for you to hire someone to get the leak fixed and have the money required for that discounted from coming rents. This, of course, assumes the damage will be no more than few thousand $ worth and that you can cover said expense on your own while being paid back periodically in waived rents.

This way the owner doesn't actually lose money as they would with an abatement and you also get immediate results since to my understanding heating is a necessity right now for the NY area.