If it's a longer term tenant, the landlord is actually disincentivized from fixing the AC, because they can fix the AC and jack the rent way up as soon as the old, abuse tenant inevitably leaves.

One of my friends suffered through this during the recent heat wave. They've been told there's no budget for AC despite a recent $50 rent hike.

Their landlord is an independently wealthy multimillionaire — they don't even need the money!