The gas in our apartment was off for 5 months, are we entitled to compensation?

Very likely you are--but not necessarily on a specific timeline. Recommend you contact a local NY landlord tenant attorney who can discuss with you the course of action that serves your best interests.

Q. Are we legally entitled to a compensation? A. Yes. Furthermore, if this is a multi-unit apartment building, you should contact NYC HPD to file a complaint. For more information, see: www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/home/home.shtml. Mike.

Dear The gas in our apartment was off for 5 months, are we entitled to compensation...? In New York City, all residential tenants are guaranteed that the apartment rented will be habitable. Cooking gas for a stove and use of a laundry room, may be considered to be intrinsic to the rental value of the apartment and a loss of both could be determined to be a breach of the statutory warranty of habitability. If you kept receipts for your out-of-pocket expenses for laundry outside of the home, you may be able to prove an actual damage caused by the loss of the laundry room. The loss of a stove to use for food preparation may have resulted in your family eating out and or bringing prepared meals into the home. If you have receipts, you may be able to prove the actual expense suffered by you as a result of the loss of the stove. You may want to calculate if the landlord's offer is in the ballpark of your actual expenses. If your actual expenses are much greater than the offered 20% abatement, you may need a court to determine your damages caused by the breach of the warranty of habitability. In that case, you will need an experienced attorney. If you are joined by a number of your neighbors in this, the expenses for an attorney for a group may be shared by the group.