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When you get a major capital improvement (MCI) performed at your building, you may hire a consultant such as an engineer or architect in addition to the contractor doing the work. For example, you may hire an engineer when you get your building’s parapet replaced. Can you include the engineer’s or architect’s fees as part of the cost of the MCI when you calculate your rent increase?
As an owner or manager, you probably deal with dozens of different documents relating to rent-stabilized tenants. For example, you have leases and renewal leases to fill out and sign, apartment registrations to file with the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), and window guard and lead paint notices that you must send to tenants each year.
Suppose a tenant’s roommate asks you for a renewal lease in her own name on a rent-stabilized apartment or for the right to continue living in a rent-controlled apartment after the tenant dies or moves out. The roommate claims that she’s entitled to pass-on rights to the apartment, based on her family-type relationship with the tenant. The roommate is either unrelated to the tenant or not one of the relatives automatically considered a “family member” for purposes of getting pass-on rights.
The Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits discrimination in housing because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. In addition to having to comply with federal law, New York City’s housing discrimination law expands the FHA’s scope and offers more protected classes. The additional protected classes include age, citizenship status, sexual orientation, lawful occupation, lawful source of income (including Section 8 recipients), and partnership status.
On Jan. 31, Mayor Bloomberg and the Mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery Operations announced a new public-private initiative to help expand mold treatment assistance in Hurricane Sandy-affected neighborhoods. Using private money raised to assist victims of Hurricane Sandy, the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City launched a remediation program to remove mold in approximately 2,000 homes in the hardest hit areas.
Your building employees are in a perfect position to keep you up-to-date on what’s going on in your building. And the information they give you about tenants can be critical in helping you run your building. They can alert you to lease violations and unauthorized tenants, and they can help you build cases against troublesome tenants.
An owner may want to move into a rent-stabilized apartment in a building he owns for many reasons. He may desire a place to live in New York City; he may seek an apartment for a family member; he may want to expand the size of an apartment he already occupies in the building.
On Nov. 12, Mayor Bloomberg signed an emergency order to waive all Department of Buildings (DOB) application and permit fees for repair work to buildings damaged by Hurricane Sandy. To help New Yorkers affected by the storm, buildings with significant structural damage in need of demolition, alterations, or reconstruction will have all their repair work fees waived, and all fees for electrical and plumbing repair work will be waived for any building damaged by the storm until further notice.
Household hazardous waste (HHW) generated as a result of damage from Hurricane Sandy includes such things as contaminated petroleum products, paint, and pesticides. HHW should be disposed of properly to protect people’s health and the environment. The New York State Department of Environmental Protection recently issued a notice urging the public to separate potentially hazardous wastes from their regular trash and bring them to one of the newly established drop-off locations or place them on the curb in areas where there will be curbside pickup.
New York City’s water purity is protected by many layers of laws and regulations. Protecting the water supply is important because clean water is essential for good health and contaminated water can spread diseases and death over large populations. In the past few years, we’ve seen a greater policy emphasis on preserving the quality of the New York water supply.
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