Rent

In a residential lease situation you do have the legal right to do so, if the problem creates an "uninhabiatble" situation for all or a portion of the premeise. That would require that the apartment it is unlivable or unusable due to the need for the repair. Some courts require that you pay the rent into an escrow account if you are making such a claim, but I do not believe Buffalo City Court does. For example if the furnace needed repair in cold weather, or if there was a security problem due to a broken door the place could be deemed uninhabitable. This is true whether you have a written lease or not, since the "warranty of habitability" is guaranteed by law in NY. However, I would advise you to document your complaints and the condition you are complaining about with letters, witnesses and photos. Simple phone messages will make your case difficult to prove if the landlord chooses to try to evict you for failure to pay rent. You also have another option. Provide the landlord with written notice of the problem and document the problem. If the landlord fails to make reasonable efforts to fix the problem, then, fix it yourself and reduce your rent by the amount of money you have been forced to spend. Provide the landlord with proof of your payment for this necessary repair along with the remainder of teh rent. You can not do this with to fix things that are your responsibility to maintain, and you can not do it for things like painting, but it can be done in some circumstances. You also can not use a failure to repair as made up reason to avoid your rental payment obligation. The court will see through this and evict you. I would advise you to speak to an attorney about the particular problem so that you can get more specific advise. For the time being, I hope that I have answered your question, and provided you with enough information to make some decisions as to how to proceed.