Forum Archive: Landlord

I own a condo in Greenpoint that I am trying to rent out. I’ve had it listed with one of the major agencies around here for the last six weeks and nothing. I’m thinking about renting it out myself, in the interest of attracting potential renters who maybe don’t want to pay a fee. Is there any way of promoting the rental outside of advertising it on Craigslist that I should do? Anything else I should look out for?

Hello,
I’m new here – and will be the steward and primary resident of our family owned brownstone in BH. I have a few questions – please bear with the lengthy post.

The house in question is a 4 floor, 3 unit home. It was set up properly and to-code up to the early 80′s as far as I know.

At some point in the mid 80′s – the garden level and parlor were opened up, and turned into a duplex, and the parlor stairs/hallway sealed off from the upper two units. By the late 80′s, it was no longer being used for rentals – family members moved in, and was not rented since.

Fast forward to now – and my wife and I will be occupying the duplex, and we’d be looking to rent the two upper units. No construction is planned, except that which is needed to bring it up to standards.

One concern, which may affect the status of the duplex… The current wall on the parlor floor, separating the stairs from the parlor, garden level and basement… Can this be preserved? Or will the tenants require garden access for secondary egress, or basement access for utilities? There are fire-escapes front and rear, if that matters, as well as roof access.

For this size house, will a buzzer system be required? I’m probably going to be adding one anyway – but wanted to know where I stand.

What about a sprinkler system?

I’m assuming fire extinguishers on each floor in the common areas… and definitely smoke detectors – but do they need to be hard wired, or batt. operated?

We already have child safety gates (the in-frame swing out type)

What else will I need to do to accept tenants again? From a general, electrical, property management, or etc point of view?

We have a lease renewal coming up with our tenants, who are good and we hope will stay for another year.

But for the eventuality when they move out, either this spring or in the future, I’m wondering if we could add a clause to their new lease that says we could show the apartment to potential new tenants in the last month of their tenancy if they decided not to renew.

Obviously that would be to avoid a costly vacancy, but is that even allowed under NY law and if so, what do experienced landlords recommend? Is it too invasive?

Hello all,

My landlord recently sold the building that I am leasing in – a 3 family in Park Slope. The new landlord is planning on occupying one of the units. We currently have sole access to the backyard and to a parking space. These two items are specifically detailed in the rider on the lease. That said, is the rider of the my lease still viable after a new landlord moves in? I am concerned that we will lose the backyard and our parking space.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

My upstairs neighbor had a leak from his kitchen sink that came through the ceiling in my living room. Water fell on my TV, cable box, etc. Repair estimate on the TV is $400. Neighbor says it’s not his fault, landlord sent a flat “no” to my request for compensation, and my renter’s insurance deductible is $500. Doesn’t seem like I should be left holding the bag here, but is there any recourse, aside from going through the hassle of trying to make a legal claim?

This is a follow up question to a recent post of mine. My 3 family (Pre-2007 construction) is up for a potential tax abatement. (421a) In exchange, all units will have to become rent stabiized for the duration of the abatement. The units will be set at market rate, so at least in the near term I won’t be losing income. I will save about $7000 a year (adjustable) in taxes for 20 years. I’m taking a poll: Would you make this trade-off? Are rent-stabilized units that much more of a headache? Is the downside worth the upside? This is on a nice street in Brooklyn on the border of Bed Stuy/Clinton Hill off the G train. Thanks for your input.

Landlords,
What amount are your coin-operated machines set for?

Hi all — I live in a 2 unit brownstone. Our landlord has decided he wants to convert the units to condos and has to do a good deal of renovation in order to do so. He expects us to stay in the home while this renovation is being performed. I am trying to figure out what our options are and am having a tough time finding information (perhaps there isn’t any). Is there any legal guidance that you can recommend re: whether he can perform these renovations while we’re living there? I imagine they’ll take a few months.

We’d be amenable to getting out of our lease early, but I think he’ll say no to that — he clearly wants to earn rent while doing the renovations because he’s trying to get our housemates to extend their lease through the end of next year, which is when he thinks the conversions will come through. I can’t imagine living through 3-4 months of renovations at the rent we’re paying (you don’t even want to know).

Any thoughts you have would be most appreciated!

We live in a relatively new building and the units were originally meant to be sold as condos, but most of the units are rentals including ours. I recently learned that my upstairs neighbor (she rents as well) had to have her entire wall replaced because of mold throughout. Apparently, the contractor repairing the wall indicated that construction was not up to code and said that the mold was very serious. The rest of us tenants feel that we want an outside inspector to check all of our apartments. We don’t trust our landlord for many other reasons. Does anyone have advice about this? I’m serious when I say my landlord is a total shadeball. I feel that it’s not my responsibility to pay for this outside inspector, but the landlord denies that there is mold. Thank you for any help.