HYATTSVILLE, Md. — With no laws requiring landlords to provide AC, tenants are stuck sweating it out during this heat wave.
WUSA9 sat down with a woman whose master bedroom is 88 degrees.
To fight the heat, Veronica Morris has kept multiple fans running in her two-bedroom Hyattsville apartment all week.
Still, she's not comfortable.
“Wooh! I’m sitting here now, you probably can see it, just sweating beads. How?” said Morris.
Prince George's County doesn't require landlords to provide air conditioning, per the county's code.
In fact, WUSA9 could not find one county in the DMV that does mandate it.
“When I was told that, I was floored. Floored!" said Morris. "There should be both. Air. heat."
Some legislators in Montgomery County agree that landlords should be required to provide cool air and have proposed a bill to make that law.
While Morris' apartment technically does have air conditioning, she says it definitely is not working properly.
"If you’re not standing right up under the air vent. You’re not feeling anything," she said.
The air coming out of the vent measures at 75 degrees, but it has not cooled the entire apartment to that temperature.
“You shouldn’t wake up having night sweats if the air is working," said Morris.
She said the property owner gave tenants a memo Thursday, saying they're aware there's a problem with the system, and they plan to fix it Tuesday.
Even though there may be little legal action Morris could take to resolve the problem at present, she plans to consult with her local council member about changing regulations.
Because, now, she said she's just trying to avoid her apartment.
“We can’t cook. We can’t dry our clothes, nothing pertaining to heat can be turned on. I can’t boil no water, or we would really perish at this point. I have options. But everybody in here don’t have options. And they shouldn’t have to have options, because their units should be cool," said Morris.
WUSA9 reached out to the property owner for comment and is waiting to hear back.