No Heat During Code Blue, Landlord Refusing Rent Credit. Do I Have A Case?

Location: Maryland

From Friday (1/30) to Monday (2/2), my apartment had no working heat. During that time, my county was under a declared Code Blue and temperatures dropped to 19°F outside even worse with wind

The leasing office provided two space heaters, but: The heaters repeatedly tripped the breaker, they did not provide a third heater after we reported that rooms were not staying warm enough, the thermostat was not functioning. 15 minutes after the heat was restored that Monday, the indoor temperature was 53°F (I have a photo timestamped).

I had called them Friday (1/30) with the issue and they had sent maintenance that day since they said it was classified as an emergency, they said they’d need a contractor to come and fix it and I had asked the maintenance guy to please let the leasing office let me know when they figure out a solution. Saturday rolls around and no word from them (they are opened 10am-5pm Saturday’s) I call them Saturday and they say that no one can come and fix the heat until that Monday.i informed them that the heaters wouldn’t work for more than 30 seconds in our rooms and all they told me was plug it elsewhere in the room (never worked for me). So in that case I told them we needed an extra heater for our third roommate(which they never sent). They apologized but never offered any other accommodations and left us without heat all the way until Monday.

We emailed Saturday night documenting the conditions and requesting ret credit but received no acknowledgment until several days later (Thursday) which was because we had gone to the leasing office. They said they were closed Saturday when I sent the email which is why they didn’t see it Monday( again it was Thursday)When we requested rent credit for Friday–Sunday due to uninhabitable conditions, management said they couldn’t tell us yes or no in person but they’d get back to us. They emailed me a day later basically saying since they provided accommodation they will not be giving us rent credit. Out of the $1942 we pay a month we requested $188, every day they were aware of us having no heat. (based on a 31 day month). I emailed them restating the and requesting again the rent credit. They never got back to me so I emailed them again and they ghosted me.

My questions:

1. Under Maryland law (specifically Real Property § 8-211 regarding serious defects affecting habitability), does lack of heat during freezing temperatures qualify? 2. Does providing space heaters satisfy the landlord’s obligation to provide heat even if they’re aware of shortages ? 3. Is rent credit appropriate for the days the unit was below habitable temperature? 4. Is this something that could reasonably succeed in small claims court? 

1. Can they kick me out if I sue them?(lease ends end of July)

I just feel upset given we are college kids and it feels like they took that to their advantage and what if it was a woman with kids or what if we had pets??

Thank you.