Last month's rent

[Sara H]

I have been reading through several of the posted topics, and several times I've read advice that said it is a bad idea to not pay the last month's rent. I've never skipped out on rent in my whole life, but am considering doing it this year. Let me give a little background as to why...

It's a very long story, but basically my landlord (which is a property company) will not repair my heat. They are following the law though - the heat does actually work. So I cannot withhold my rent legally while waiting for repairs, nor can I report them to code enforcement. I live in a house divided into 3 apartments - and between the three tenants, we are paying between $800 and $1000 a month for heat! Nothing else, including the a/c, causes our electric to go up so high. I have been tracking my kilowatt hours daily and that's how I figured it out. This problem has been going on for over a year now, and the company has sent the heating repair company out at least 8 times. It is the same answer every time - it works. Yes, the heat works. But something is wrong with it to make the heat bill so high. The repair company said the units need to be replaced several times, but the landlord won't approve - and probably because they are providing heat, according to the laws.

I live in Tennessee, and understand electric rates have gone up. But I lived up north most of my life and never had bills this high - and it is not nearly as cold here as it is there! So, since I have no recourse against them, I was considering withholding my last month's rent to make up for the hardship the heating bill is causing me.

Any advice? Can they sue me? Is it likely they will?