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Tenants sometimes treat their apartments as if they own them, making alterations without your consent. For example, a tenant may remove the existing kitchen cabinets and install his own. This could cause big problems, especially if the tenant’s alterations aren’t done properly. If the tenant makes structural alterations without a permit, you could get hit with a violation from the DOB.
Can you evict a tenant who alters an apartment without your consent—or at least get him to put the apartment back to the way it was? Yes, if the following conditions are met:
To implement the January 2014 amendments to the Rent Stabilization Code, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) has issued revised versions of its rent-stabilized Renewal Lease Form, as well as the New York City Lease Rider for Rent-Stabilized Tenants and the High Rent Vacancy Deregulation Notice. The new Lease Rider must be added to both vacancy and renewal leases.
If you’re like most owners who discover that an illegal subtenant is living in a rent-regulated apartment, your first reaction may be to contact your attorney and sue in housing court to evict the tenant. But this course of action doesn’t always make sense. Housing court cases based on illegal sublets take time and can cost a lot. And even if you win, the tenant will usually get the chance to avoid eviction by getting rid of the illegal subtenant.
Although it’s currently a favorable rent regulatory environment for tenants in New York City, there are still a few ways to deregulate a rent-regulated apartment. One way that remains untouched by policy makers requires an owner to “substantially rehabilitate” their building to be exempt from rent stabilization.
Sooner or later even the luckiest owner gets stuck with a tenant who’s not paying rent. This makes it tougher for owners to make mortgage payments and pay bills such as employee paychecks, utilities, and insurance. But before you can sue to evict, you must ask the tenant to pay the rent owed and give him or her a chance to pay within a certain time period. In legal terms, this is known as a “rent demand.”
If you’re like most owners, you may be confused about what documents you’re legally required to include with the vacancy and renewal leases you offer to tenants. Both the city and federal governments have passed laws requiring you to include various documents with leases in certain situations. If you don’t include these documents, you run the risk of getting hit with costly penalties.
When it comes to apartment repairs, some tenants may be highly opinionated about all aspects of how the work should be done. In one case, an apartment needed painting and plastering, but the tenant wouldn’t allow the owner’s employees access to her apartment. She demanded that they use her paint. But there wasn’t enough of her paint to cover her apartment, and moreover, the tenant hadn’t moved furniture to provide access for painting [888 Grand Concourse: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. AT610016RT].
When you sue to evict a tenant’s family member who claims to have pass-on rights to the apartment after the tenant dies or moves out, you should try to get witnesses to testify that the family member didn’t live at the apartment. Having witnesses will bolster your case. And, as various court decisions show, witnesses could make the difference in whether the court will allow you to evict the family member.
On May 5, the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) approved preliminary numbers for increasing rent-stabilized rents. The board approved rent hikes of between 0 and 3 percent for one-year renewal leases and increases of between 0.5 percent and 4.5 percent for two-year renewal leases commencing between Oct. 1, 2014, and Sept. 30, 2015. Additionally, the RGB approved a sublet allowance between 0 percent and 10 percent and a special guideline for decontrolled apartments equal to the maximum base rent plus 30 percent or the HUD-issued Fair Market Rent, whichever is greater.
In late December 2013, Mayor Bloomberg signed new smoke alarm regulations that came into effect in April 2014. Local Law 112 of 2013 was signed to address the public safety concern that apartments may be equipped with smoke alarms that no longer function properly. Properly installed and working smoke alarms can provide an early warning of the presence of fire, allowing sufficient time for occupants to escape. But all too often batteries that power alarms are either removed or not replaced when they expire.
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