Q: My landlord has been promising for months to make some necessary repairs in my apartment, but he never seems to get around to them. I know tenants have the right to withhold rent under some circumstances, but I'm not sure of the requirements or the procedures I must follow. Is withholding allowed only for violations of the state Sanitary Code? And if I do withhold my rent, am I required to put it in an escrow account of some kind?

A: You can withhold rent because of virtually any problem with your apartment; it doesn't have to be a violation of the Sanitary Code, nor does the problem have to constitute a health or safety threat, as was the case years ago, before the state statute was amended. The only requirements today are: 1) Your landlord or agents of the landlord must have been aware of the problem before you began withholding your rent: 2) You must not be responsible for creating the problem or defect about which you are complaining; and 3) It must be possible for the landlord to make the necessary repairs while you remain in the apartment. If all of those conditions are satisfied, your landlord can't evict you for nonpayment of rent as long as the damages you claim equal or exceed the rent you have withheld. Even if a court ultimately finds that you withheld too much, you'll have a week from that decision to repay any amount you owe your landlord before he can initiate eviction proceedings against you.

As for your second question, there is no escrow requirement for withheld rent. The Greater Boston Real Estate Board has tried for several years to persuade the Legislature to adopt legislation requiring tenants to pay withheld rent into an escrow account managed by the court, and it will sponsor that measure again this year, but state lawmakers, to date, have not approved it.