On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 16:37:41 -0400, mm
wrote:

This is true even for heat, but for air conditioning, people
have almost no rights, partly because very few people will die without
AC, but many die without heat, and partly because AC is relatively
new, and didn't exist or wasn't very common when most tenants rights
laws were written, several decades ago.

I don't want to give the impression that tenants have rights. IN some
places there are tenants rights laws, but in most places afaik, there
are none. And they only have the rights that are in the lease, and in
general contract law or common law. Plus even those rights can be
trampelled, especially if the landlord is wicked or if you tick off
the landlord.