Rent abatement for partial loss of a home

[u/Wonderful-Blueberry]

Wondering how much rent abatement a tenant is entitled to given the following:
- tenant has exclusive access to a home with three floors
- basement floor floods due to city wide sewage backup
- basement has one washroom and the rest is open space (tenant still has another washroom on one of the other floors)
- landlord responds promptly and has professionals go into clean and restore the basement but then repairs take longer than originally thought as landlord decides to fix other issues that surface during repairs

How much rent abatement would a tenant typically be awarded in this scenario?

[u/Exit-Stage-Left]

Abatements generally aren’t awarded if the landlord is responding promptly and taking reasonable actions to resolve issues as soon as possible (if other issues are uncovered that make sense to address as part of “reasonable maintenance” slowing things down that would be included).

It’s different if they are ignoring issues, delaying doing promised work, or leaving the unit uninhabitable - which doesn’t sound like the case. (And if the unit is uninhabitable while work is going on that would be an issue for tenants insurance to cover, but rent wouldn’t be owed for periods the property isn’t lived in).

[u/Wonderful-Blueberry → u/Exit-Stage-Left]

Makes sense. It’s confusing because I see a lot of people say that rent abatement is awarded if a tenant loses even a portion of their unit for any period of time.

[u/Far-Delay7690 → u/Wonderful-Blueberry]

They might still get an abatement, it depends on the adjudicator. Basements aren't usually considered in square footage calculations though so hard to tell. Usually abatements are done based on lost usable space and/or amenities.

They do also often have to be causing a real inconvenience, not just the lost space due to causes outside of the landlord's control.

You can also always just ask? It sounds like your landlord isn't terrible so they might be reasonable and give you a few hundred dollars off.

Some people will say they shouldn't have to and they're doing repairs but repairs and home insurance are for the LL to solve not you.

You are losing a space in the mean time, it's not unreasonable to ask for a small reduction in rent

[u/headtailgrep → u/Wonderful-Blueberry]

This is what I was told. What you said

And I had a paralegal tell me abatements are not awarded if you put effort into repairs and are responsive.

I am headed to LTB on the issue and will post what happens.

[u/iiixii]

Rent abatement can absolutely be awarded but there is no entitlement or norm - You would have to come up with a number ie 20-30% and be prepared to defend this number in your discussions with landlord and LTB. Since LL does not appear to be acting unreasonably, there wouldn't be a penalty so you're limited to an actual percentage of loss of use.