Am I entitled to a reduction on rent?

Send the landlord a letter outlining the ongoing problem and informing him you plan to install a new dishwasher and will submit the bill for the appliance + installation to him.

Registered letter!
Polite but firm demands.
Ask your rent to be prorated between now and time it takes to have a NEW unit installed.
I'd say $25 a day.
fox, your LL does not care and has lots'o'crap on their plate.
This is going to be a case of 'the squeeky wheel gets the oil'.
Registered letter followed by daily phone calls.
DON'T LOSE IT!
Cry like a baby...keep your eye on the prize...a dishwasher. Should you have to go through all this BS?
NO
That's life in the big city, it's the little things that screw you.
Everytime you lose it you can tack another week until the time that dishwasher works.
Cry a river to anyone in that office that will listen. It's your only hope.
Think your going to bully that dishwasher to completion?
Going to retain legal help?
CRY CRY CRY
best approch, I promise.

If I were a landlord I'd have trouble taking seriously someone crying over a dishwasher.

I have to agree with Matt. I guess a judge would ask you if you are unable to wash your dishes.

Matt,
I deal with situations and suppliers all the time.
Early in my career I played the bully card and I created animosity long term with the supplier.
Then I did the consistent demand story...also of little value.
Then I discovered the cry baby approach.
No one will help you (long term) if they don't really want to.
The cry baby approach is to try to get them to WANT to help you.
Until you get the want, you don't get the help. It's the more flies with honey than vinegar approach.

falco, I could see taking your approach over a kitchen sink that's not working, or a toilet that's not flushing.

But a dishwasher? No way.

Withholding of rent? Registered letters? Seriously, get real.

Matt, you're right that the lack of a working dishwasher does not render the apartment 'uninhabitable' as would a non-functioning toidy or sink. But--a d/w is an amenity that and landlords charge rent accordingly.

But I do agree that crying's not exactly a viable tactic. Firm, factual and persistent are the best approaches.

^^Sorry--typo--lose the THAT in second sentence...^^

I didn't write withhold rent. Pay the rent. Offer a reduction if the LL wants the option of taking forever. The problem is not the dishwasher, it's the frustration and time consumption associated with the dishwasher not being dealt with. That's what you cry about.
My wife is going to kill me!
My girl friend walked out when she saw the pile of dishes with NO happy ending. BOO HOO!
REG. letter says I'm going on the record with this complaint.
I once had a broken fridge taken out of my apartment and had to wait 9 weeks for a new one.
It can be uber frustrating. I must have had 100 telephone conversations with Ladies sporting IQs in the 70s. Unless they want to help you...they wont.

I worked one summer for a plumber on Fire Island (in my youth)
He had the only game in town.
At the beginning of one summer a women came into the office and was screaming at the top of her lungs about her toilets not flushing and that plumber had all winter to fix them and he better get his lazy ass over to her house and finish PDQ.
After she left he turned to me and said, "watch the power, her toilets wont flush this summer".
All summer long he tortured her with BS back order stories and the such.
Promising to show and then failing with stories about emergencies.
She screamed mid summer about bringing in a plumber from the main land. No such luck.
He fixed her toilets the weekend after labor day and charged her a kings ransom.
By then she put her head down and kissed his ass.
If they don't WANT to help...they don't

I have to add that this is one of the reasons I own instead of renting. I still have to wait for the repairman, but dammit that's MY depreciating asset, not someone else's. Though I did spent part of my day adjusting the drain on my tenant's bathroom sink.

Having owned and rented, I'll take renting ANY DAY when it comes to repairs.

I had to have P.C. Richard out four times to adjust the new, $2,000 dishwasher I purchased from them. And it's still not 100% right, but I refuse to take any more time off from work or waste another weekend day. I'll have a contractor fix it at some point in the context of other things.

And don't even get me started on freakin' Time Warner and the mysterious unresolved cable problems after a total of ten appointments (six visits plus four no-shows). Our cable has a tendency to go out at the most inopportune times -- like in the middle of the Jets' playoff field goal -- and then refuse to turn back on for days or sometimes weeks.

Gotta love registered letters. People who insist on them are so indignant about them. So what happens when the registered letter is returned 10 days later? Not refused, but returned because the recipient, a landlord, knows that no good letters come registered (or certified), and so after the period required under postal regulations, the postman returns it because it was unclaimed and unsigned for. (For a tip, or a good Christmas tip, the postman will definitely show it to the recipient so the intended recipient can "ignore" it). Well, a court will consider the letter received because of the good faith effort, but you aren't planning on going to court, you just wanted to threaten subtly.

Manhattanfox, it already looks like the landlord is making a good faith effort - making repairs 3 times. Deducting rent, or making the situation hostile, doesn't seem warranted. Ask them to fix it again or replace it. Get a little empathy from the rental office (note: empathy is not available to people who are annoying) and it will get done. Under the Multiple Dwelling Law they have your key, no need for you to be home to supervise.

OMG, lad, don't get ME started on Time Warner. When falco started talking about 'ladies with IQs in the 70s' I immediately thought of our ongoing saga with the great and powerful TW, even before reading your post... That company's truly from he-double-L.

I agree with recommendations to document, demand they fix the problem, make it clear that you require some compensation for the situation. I would further say don't pay rent until (a) you have a resolution, and (b) you have a deal for how much of a reduction you get for the problems. Be firm but polite and professional. Reference the lease where appropriate (even if you're stretching a bit, as long as you're not making things up).

Several years ago we had a mouse that the landlord (big management company in a doorman building) took a similar approach to - half-assed attempts to get rid of it, followed by mouse coming back, our waits and follow-ups, more half-assed attempts, etc. I followed the tactic above, trying to be as professional as possible while also making it very clear I was seriously pissed (we had a crawling/starting to walk baby at the time, so the sanitary issues were that much more concerning). They ended up doing an all out blitz and successfully getting rid of the mouse, then crediting us $1200.

"I had to have P.C. Richard out four times to adjust the new, $2,000 dishwasher"

Why are you bragging about how much your overpaid for your dishwasher? You like overpaying? Do you know how many times I had to "adjust" my $300 Kenmore dishwasher? ZERO.

Anyone with half a brain knows NEVER to sign for a registed letter. You will get the letter anyway since when the sender realizes you won't sign for it, they almost always send it regular mail.

"And don't even get me started on freakin' Time Warner and the mysterious unresolved cable problems after a total of ten appointments (six visits plus four no-shows)."

There's an easy solution to that problem. It's called FiOS.

> I would further say don't pay rent until (a) you have a resolution, and (b) you have a deal for how much of a reduction you get for the problems.

Don't pay rent because you have a dishwasher that is a lemon and that the landlord can document 3 attempts to fix? Good luck to the OP if this advice is followed. "Oh but judge, I had dirty plates".

Socialist, by the way, you sound very much like NYCMatt.

i can't believe that anyone's idea of an "informed answer" would include not paying rent. This will just get the op into housing court and with nice black marks all over their credit rating. installing a new dishwasher more than likely violates the lease too, for the genius that wrote that.