MILWAUKEE — Recent frigid temperatures have pushed many heating systems to work beyond capacity, according to city leaders. This has left several people across Milwaukee, over the last few weeks, with no heat.
"Need to start holding them accountable, way more accountability needs to be taken," tenant Easter Milner said.
It's the sentiment from Milwaukee tenants, like Milner, who have experienced it themselves, and from city leaders who said they've seen a growing number of no heat or insufficient heat complaints over the last several weeks.
Watch here: Why tenants in Milwaukee are calling for more landlords to take accountability for heating issues during winter months.
It's a story TMJ4's Jenna Rae has been investigating for years. In April, she broke down which landlord had the most heat complaints city wide.
That's how Rae met Milner. In February, Milner had been running her space heater inside her apartment for weeks because her heat wasn't working. That space heater caused most of her apartment and others to catch fire.
Nine months later, Milner is still working to put the pieces of her life back together.
"I tried to do everything the right way and no one was able to help me. It's extremely frustrating, like, everything. It could've been prevented," Milner explained on Tuesday.
Prevention is the message from city leaders, who said on Tuesday, they're calling on landlords to check heating systems to avoid outages during cold spells.
"It is within the responsibility of the property owner to do the maintenance of the system such as boilers, periodics of the sprinklers, and all that. Since October, we have been voicing this out," DNS Commissioner Jezamil Arroyo-Vega said.
Arroyo-Vega said since Nov. 11, DNS has inspected 322 complaints related to heat.
That six week period accounts for about 40% of the total heat complaints filed last winter, which Rae previously reported about in April.
"Are you concerned moving forward with this winter that you could see even more calls than last year," Rae asked Arroyo-Vega.
"Absolutely. It's more also about the education of the tenants to know we are here to help them," Arroyo-Vega responded.
Rental units and homes are required to maintain 67 degrees or higher. If that's an issue, leaders said you need to contact your landlord and then DNS.
"Not having heat and, or not having water is a blatant violation of that contract. Not answering the phone when those things go wrong, in my estimation, when it's 10 below zero, is criminal," Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said.
Leaders and tenants we talked to remain adamant that accountability is necessary.
"Need to start holding them accountable, way more accountability that needs to be taken," Milner added.
What to do if you're a renter without heat
The DNS recommends you send a work order to your landlord first.
If no one responds, file a formal complaint with DNS. DNS will then send an inspector out who will also get in contact with the landlord. If DNS inspectors file orders for restoration and it doesn't get done, DNS can issue re-inspection fees until the landlord gets things fixed.
To file a complaint with DNS, click here.
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