that was a bit of a joke reply, but translating from tenant to english, "literally five minutes" means 20-30 minutes at full blast if there really is a problem, then it could be 1) a build-up of sludge in the bottom of the hot water tank, blocking the lower heating element (if the heater is electrical). This may be solved by draining & refilling the tank a few times. 2) a broken heating element (if the heater is electrical) 3) if it is a gas or oil heater, the burner is gunked up 4) the thermostat is set at too low of a setting. This is tricky, since for safety purposes (especially if kids or old people are around), you are required to set it to a fairly low temperature. 5) the heater is not big enough. It depends on the quality of the rental, but a good rental should have a good supply of hot water. In our buildings, we have high capacity gas fired hot water heaters, set at as high a temperature as the law allows, and people are pretty happy about it.
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