“just don’t know if it’s reasonable to ask for something like money off of next month’s rent?”

Photo by PoPville flickr user LaTur

“Dear PoPville,

I have been renting a rowhouse around Petworth for the past three years along with two other roommates. It’s an old house and the rent is relatively cheap, so I try not to complain about a lot of minor infrastructure issues and interior aesthetics. But due to some serious leakage (initially from the rooftop/upstairs bathroom old window, now to a lesser extent from an old bathtub with broken tiles/flooring upstairs), our property manager has notified us that they want to do a complete renovation of the upstairs bathroom.

This work will “take about a week” to complete, and will obviously put our bathroom out of commission. We have a half bath downstairs, so there is no other shower option available.

My question is: can my roommates and I ask for some type of compensation for this inconvenience? Again, I want to take the good (new bathroom with no leaky bathtub and fixed flooring!) with the bad (no shower for a week!), but I just don’t know if it’s reasonable to ask for something like money off of next month’s rent.

Appreciate, in advance, any advice provided! Hoping that my kitchen ceiling (below the upstairs bathroom) doesn’t collapse in the meantime!”