Landlord Lied By Omission And Building Has Not Had Hot Water In Over Two Years

When I rented my place, my landlord did not tell me that the building did not have hot water. This is impacting well over 400 people.

I did not have the credit to be able to move out so I tried to make do with it by boiling everything but somehow I got ill and doctors discovered two stomach infections.

A friend who lives on a different floor, as well as several other people throughout the building, have also come down with stomach illness over the course of the last year and one of them was hospitalized for sepsis.

I am wondering if this could be grounds for a class action lawsuit because also the employees and janitorial and the security guards who have to sometimes work with the trash, etc., no one has hot water to wash their hands anywhere in the building.

The building manager says that the landlord had known about it for some time and that it cannot be fixed anytime soon because the boiler is on the roof and will require a helicopter or a crane and the replacement boiler altogether will be over $1 million.

I have a list going and over 20 people so far are interested in a class action lawsuit. Is this something that could be pursued via class action? I’m now on disability and working through the damage done.

Thank you for any advice.