Dear PoPville – Apt mgmt is trying to force us to pay for AC unit installation

Dear PoPville,

I arrived home to a new memo from our resident manager/management company and have been ill over this since. I’d love to hear from PoPville if what we are being mandated to do is fair, normal, etc.

When we asked if this fee was mandatory, our manager said yes. Apparently WC Smith and Company purchased $40 AC Unit brackets for every window. To offset these costs – which we didn’t know about or ask for – they are now going to charge us $20 a unit, for installation and removal. We have 2 units – $80 by summers end. A you can imagine, 98% of people in my building are fully capable of doing this on their own, like they, and I, have been doing for years.

This is a non-luxury rent controlled building on the bustling corner of 16 and U, NW. But many residents are very old – having been here 30 plus years. The other population here are young professionals.

I can assure you none of us want to pay this stupid fee. Is this legal? Can I simply refuse and not risk eviction? I am very tempted to just simply install our units and ask for forgiveness later.