Does withholding rent work when the tenant doesn't set up an escrow?

[Mat O'Grady]

Hello all,

I have a tenant that I started the eviction process with and I would like to know if anyone has dealt with a similar situation.

My first mistake was letting the tenant move in without paying all the money upfront. She said she would pay it by the next Friday and it didn't happen. In the meantime, the oven part of the stove stopped working, the burners still worked. I came by to try and fix it and I couldn't. I told her that when she paid the rest of the money that I would buy her a brand new stove. She said OK.

She never paid the rest of the money even though we talked multiple times about setting up a time to pay and she said she was going to. I figure she is not ever going to pay, but I can't evict off of her not paying the amount to move in, so I have to wait until she doesn't pay rent. She didn't pay the rent for the next month. I served the notice to quit and I called her multiple times and left messages. Finally, she calls me back and says she has all the money but things need to be fixed. I tried to work a deal out with her, but she didn't want to give me any money. She claims that she doesn't have to pay rent because the oven needs to be fixed.

I thought that in CT, one could only withhold rent if there was a health and safety concern. If there was something of concern, she would have to file a complain and then put the money in an escrow account. I looked at the actual law and it does say that the landlord is responsible for appliances, but she hasn't filed a complaint and she didn't tell me she wasn't going to pay until after I served the notice to quit.

So my questions are, have you dealt with situations similar to this and do you think her reason for not paying will hold up in court?