Pitt senior Nicky Pasi pulled up the shades in her Millvale Avenue apartment, revealing a cracked window that allowed the 28-degree air to seep through its rounded, foot-long slice.

Across the hall, the main door showcased two different shades of paint where an area around a previously existing deadbolt had been puttied after a break-in.

Well, four months after the break-in.

"[My landlord] insisted that it was existing damage and would not repair the door," Pasi said after re-enacting what she had believed to be a crowbar prying through the inside of the wooden door.

"He was like, 'What did you guys do to the door?' and it took him until months later to just get putty and fill in the damage," Pasi said.

It's house-hunting season at Pitt once again, but those who have already found their special (or not-so-special) pad have certain tenant rights. Sub-par living conditions and uncooperative landlords can be resolved with housing codes and the Pennsylvania Landlord-Tenant Law.

"I think many students are unaware of their rights as tenants," Oakland Planning and Development Corporation's Community Organizer Laura Ludwig said. "And they are not familiar with how to report a violation or what a potential violation might be."

For this reason, organizations like the OPDC and Pitt's Housing Resource Center provide brochures and Web sites that detail this kind of information.

The rights outlined in these sources highlight the right to quiet enjoyment, habitability and security deposits.

The right to quiet enjoyment, the one that says a landlord cannot enter your apartment without reasonable notice and legitimate purpose, is a right Pasi lives without.

"He shows up whenever he wants," Pasi said. "He'll give us a vague time span like between Monday and Thursday and then he'll show up a week later when we're not even expecting him."

The HRC Web site defines appropriate notice to be at least 24 hours and legitimate reason to include such things as repairs, emergencies or showing the apartment to prospective tenants.

Allegheny County Health Department Spokesman Dave Zazac said these kinds of issues are best solved with discussion between the landlord and tenant.

"Really make every, every effort to talk to your landlord," Zazac said. "Often, there is little or no communication between the landlord and tenant … Keep those lines open."

When it comes to habitability, which includes construction, maintenance and safety standards, Zazac said to approach the problem in the same way. If the landlord doesn't respond, he encourages students to call the ACHD.

If the tenant reports what Zazac calls a "critical violation," the landlord will be given 24 hours to remedy the situation. These include things like no heat between October and May, sewage backup, rats present in the living area, and serious wiring and structural problems.

Zazac cited other examples like uneven flooring, lack of smoke detectors and doors or windows that aren't weather-sealed. He said these were not major violations, and the landlord would be given 30 days to fix them.

If the landlord did not make the repairs in the designated period of time, he or she could be taken to the local magistrate court.

"When it comes to landlord-tenant cases, it usually involves security deposits," Pam Brown said. She is a representative from Eugene N. Ricciardi's courthouse, the local magistrate for Oakland.

Tenants can file a claim there if they do not receive their security deposit back within 30 days along with a written account of what, if anything, was withheld and why.

"We've pretty much written off the security deposit," Pasi said.

She said that she knows her landlord will blame her for the patchy walls and ripped ceiling that were there before she moved in. She said he was supposed to come at the beginning of the lease term to document existing damage, but he never showed up.

Pasi pointed to scratches on the kitchen floor near a dishwasher with exposed wiring. She said it took months to get the landlord to replace the broken dishwasher. When he did, Pasi said, he damaged the floor and later blamed the scratches on the tenants.

Her landlord was unavailable for comment.

Zazac said his number one tip for frustrated tenants is to not stop rent payments.

"Never, ever do that," he said. "It puts you on marshy legal grounds."

He said to continue to pay rent and call the ACHD, where they will lead tenants to a legal course of action against their landlord.

As for Pasi and her roommates, they've threatened to make the call, but never have. She said she fears he'd give them even more of a hard time than he already does.

"We don't like him," she said. "But it's best to keep him not knowing that."

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