It shall be the duty of every person owning or controlling any apartment house, in which the heat is furnished from a heating plant used in common for the purpose of heating the various rooms and apartments therein and in which the heating plant is under the control or supervision of such owner or person in control of such building, to furnish heat to such rooms and apartments from October 1 of each year to May 1 of the succeeding year, so that the occupants thereof may secure, without such undue restrictions of ventilation as to interfere with proper sanitary conditions, a minimum temperature of sixty degrees Fahrenheit at six thirty o'clock A.M., sixty eight degrees Fahrenheit at seven thirty o'clock A.M., and thereafter until ten thirty o'clock P.M., averaged throughout the apartment. Written notice of complaint concerning lack of heat in such room or apartment shall first be given to the Building Official before any person shall be deemed to have violated this Section. For the purpose of determining whether or not the temperature in any such room or apartment is in accordance with the provisions of this Section, temperature readings shall be made by the Village by means of a standard Fahrenheit thermometer, in not less than two separate rooms in such apartment, or if the apartment consists of only one room, then in two opposite parts of the room as near the extremes as practicable, such thermometer to be placed at a point not less than four feet nor more than six feet above the floor of any such room or apartment and at least four feet away from any door or window leading to the outer air. Failure to furnish the heat required under the terms of this Section shall not constitute an offense where it is due to a breakdown of the heating plant, if diligence is used to have such plant repaired (unless such breakdown has been caused by the violation of an ordinance relating to the operation of heating plants), nor where it is due to strikes, to general shortage of fuel, nor to any act of the tenant who makes the complaint nor to any cause beyond the owner's control. (amd. Ord. 3873, 9-12-2022)