Providing individual storage units to tenants is a popular amenity in the city. Extra storage space can also become an additional revenue stream by charging tenants for the use of the storage units. But renting storage units to tenants can also bring added hassles, such as the cost of building the storage units, maintaining them, and billing and collecting money from tenants. Also, if your building has rent-stabilized tenants and you create and rent the storage units yo...

This year has been the first full year of implementation of the new boiler inspection rules. The new rules were signed into law in April 2010, and were fully implemented in May 2010. They pertain to low-pressure boiler inspections, filing requirements, penalties, and waivers. The 2011 inspection cycle recently ended on Nov. 16. If you waited until the end of the cycle, and you own a building with six or more apartments, you must file an annual inspection report with the...

The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) has just announced an increase in this year's air-conditioner rent surcharge for owners who pay for electricity. It set the monthly surcharge at $29.13, up from $26.83 last year. This year's increase reflects higher electricity costs as calculated by the Rent Guidelines Board's 2011 Price Index of Operating Costs issued in April 2011.

Heating season is fast approaching, and we want to remind you of the temperatures you are legally required to maintain. Heat and hot water complaints probably will be the most common type of service complaint you will deal with this winter. According to statistics compiled by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), there were more than 172,000 complaints about lack of heat from tenants last winter. In addition, 883 of the owners who failed to provi...

In the June 2010 issue, we wrote about the Department of Building's (DOB) increased attention to apartment balconies in New York City after the March death of a tenant who fell from a faulty 24th-floor terrace on East 39th Street. At the time of the announcement, DOB had declared the balconies of 16 city apartment buildings to be off-limits and that hundreds more lacked proper inspections (“In the News: DOB Appoints New Enforcement Official, Initiates Sweeping...

The city's Department of Sanitation (DOS) has a recycling program for Christmas trees and wreaths. It should make getting rid of trees and wreaths after the holiday much easier for you. The trees and wreaths may simply be put at curbside anytime on any day, on or after Monday, Jan. 3, through Friday, Jan. 14, 2011. DOS will collect the trees and wreaths and recycle them into ground cover and compost.

In late September, a Vietnam veteran was sitting with his dog outside his building on Second Avenue in the East Village when a 45-pound air conditioner fell from a sixth-floor window. The air conditioner bounced off of the first-floor commercial tenant's awning and landed on his head. After nearly dying during surgery, the injured veteran filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the building owner.

Protecting tenants against domestic violence is a difficult problem many owners face. In some situations, you may be required to let a domestic violence victim out of her lease. In New York State, the tenantial lease termination bill was signed into law on June 4, 2007, and amended on Aug. 15, 2007. Together, the original law and the amendment authorize courts to issue orders terminating the lease or rental agreement of a domestic violence victim who has obtained an ord...

It is time-consuming to go to the Environmental Control Board to fight a recycling violation you may get from the city's Department of Sanitation (DOS). If you are like most owners, you probably just pay the fine. But with fines for each violation ranging from $25 to $500, the costs can add up.

Winter weather creates hazardous conditions that can be extremely dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians. And while there are city agencies responsible for monitoring and dealing with the side effects of freezing temperatures and winter storms on public roadways, taking care of slippery sidewalks is a responsibility that falls directly upon building owners.