Apartment Has No Separate Thermostat, Inadequate Heat

[StuckInUtah]

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Utah

My wife, son, and I live in a basement apartment in Utah (southern Utah County) and there is no separate heating unit down here. The only thermostat in the house is upstairs, which is rented by other renters; the landlord and his family live in another house in a neighboring city.

Our landlord doesn't really seem to care that it gets REALLY cold down here in the winter, and there is very minimal heat coming through the vents. All utilities in are included in our rent, but last winter when we had a small space heater (new, indoor-safe, etc) in our son's bedroom to keep him warm, he freaked out, saying that the utility bill was way too high and he explained that he didn't want us using them.

It will be October in a couple days, and it's going to start getting a lot colder here soon, especially at night. This is a big concern because he doesn't really seem to care. In fact, he told me that he was struggling financially so he wasn't sure how much work he was going to be able to do on the house.

A friend of mine tells me that the laws here require basement apartments to have their own separate heating units with thermostats so the tenants can control it. This is NOT the case in our basement apartment. I'm probably going to go to the city to find out what other laws he's breaking but I'm scared they'll evict us immediately. We do have somewhere else to go, but I guess we're just not ready for that. We'd need a week or two.

In any case, advice is appreciated.

[Mr. Knowitall]

You can read a landlord's statutory duties here, and there's a short article about remedies here.

The statutes do not specify a minimum temperature for a rental unit - in most states it's in the range of 65-68F, and it is at times defined in local ordinances. What is the actual temperature in your unit when it is colder outside?