To All Brownstone Owners & Brokers:
As a current tenant experiencing considerable difficulty with the owner of the family-owned brownstone I live in Park Slope, PLEASE be upfront and honest (or have your broker be) with your prospective tenants about “quirks” of family-owned brownstone living. Including, but not limited to: Mail going to the owner’s apartment only, who must then distribute…
As a current tenant experiencing considerable difficulty with the owner of the family-owned brownstone I live in Park Slope, PLEASE be upfront and honest (or have your broker be) with your prospective tenants about “quirks” of family-owned brownstone living. Including, but not limited to:
Mail going to the owner’s apartment only, who must then distribute the mail, at their own leisure. (And please make plans to have someone pick up the mail when the owner goes on vacation.)
Installation of cable that has to be done at the convenience of the owner (because the connection comes through his backyard) or in our case, the backyard of the building next door, so not only do you have to work around the owner’s schedule, but that of the people next door.
If you are not going to employ a super, or barely employ one, please be upfront with the tenants that they will be responsible for all upkeep, including common areas. (In fairness, all expenses are always deductible from rent, but it’s the time factor of finding repairman, etc.)
Please do NOT assume that everyone understands these things about family-owned brownstone living. If someone had explained this to my partner and I what we would have to deal with, we could have at least rented our place with our eyes wide open, instead of having to deal with this retroactively, and being told “well, that’s just the way it is in these brownstones.”
And renters, ask questions! Be persistent. Do just not be bowled over by the beauty of the brownstone, and your luck in finding one…
Thanks.
The problem with the post office (or — forgive me — at least ONE of the problems!!) is that there don’t seem to be many “regular” route carriers any longer. On numerous occasions, I see mail being delivered by people who aren’t even wearing the P.O. uniform and appear to be temps or fill-ins. When our regular carrier is not delivering the mail, delivery is sloppy to say the least. My mail often gets delivered to the houses on either side of me. If either neighbor doesn’t get home until very late or, heaven forbid, is traveling, I don’t get my mail; and once it’s in their mailbox, there’s nothing I can do about it except wait until they return or complain to the P.O. … and we all know how far that gets us.
Of course, tenants are not responsible for finding repairmen, but when they need a repair, they ARE responsible for telling the landlord.
When I bought my place I was amazed to see that tenants got their mail delivered to a small wooden box hanging by wire from the front of grated iron door to the garden apartment. I went to considerable expense (and aggravation with Post Office, locksmith etc) to get a lockbox and internal mailbox. I think that this is an important service. That being said, the service provided by the US Post Office is a horror. They missort mail constantly, which put tenants and landlord in position of properly distributing mail. And despite a prominently displayed sign on the grated door, they still throw the mail on the ground behind the door, so I get to be the mailman anyway from time to time and God forbid, if I am away for a couple of days and that happens, the tenants don’t get their mail.
I agree with the original poster that the tenant and landlord have to have a heart to heart BEFORE signing the lease about the “quirks” of Brownstone living, i.e. living in 100+ year old buildings, and tenants deserve the good service for the rent they are paying. Tenants are NOT responsible for finding repairmen, upkeep of halls etc. But you don’t need a super either. It just requires a little give and take with scheduling with the landlord — like attempting to accomodate an owner’s schedule for arranging cable service which requires access to an owner’s backyard? Yeah, that is part of brownstone living.
Having grown up in a brownstone with my family as a tenant, and now being the owner of the same brownstone, here’s my experience for whatever it’s worth. As tenants in that 2-family home, my family always cleaned our hallway and stairs, even though we were not required to do so. It was our home, and it had to be kept clean, as did the rest of the apartment. We also volunteered to shovel snow in winter which was for me, as a child, great fun to shovel snow with my father. It was greatly appreciated by the landlord. Regarding mail, there was only one mailbox. Our landlord would call up to my mother (who was a stay-at-home mom at the time) and give her our mail. If no one was home, she would place our mail on the table in the parlor floor hallway for us. If the landlord wasn’t home, we would simply wait until later in the day or evening to get our mail.
After buying the home and becoming the landlord, things were quite different. Our tenants did not tell us of any problems that cropped up, i.e., leaks, repairs, and such. They broke fixtures in the bathroom; installed electrical outlets without our knowledge; did not tell us about a leak in the roof. When they eventually moved, we found the plaster ceiling in the living room was so water-damaged that we had to knock it out and replaster the entire ceiling. We had to replace fixtures in the bathroom; hire an electrician to make sure that the outlets they installed were up to code; renovate the entire kitchen because it was so trashed. Their only redeeming quality was that they were quiet and did not make a lot of noise. My family had lived in that apartment for 25 years, and it looked spanking brand new because we took pride in our home and respected the fact that it was not our property so we had to care for it as if it were ours.
Cable was not an issue back then, it did not exist; but telephone repairs remain the same as today. Access is sometimes required at the most inconvenient times.
My experience was probably not typical, and I know that not all tenants are destructive. I think people today have different demands, justified or not. Just remember that it’s a two-way street if you’re living in a brownstone…tenants should consider themselves “guests” in a private home, albeit rent-paying “guests.” They should not expect the same array of services they would get in apartment buildings. They should discuss their expectations up front before signing the lease.
Similarly, landlords should keep an open dialog with their tentants, even if it feels like you’re pulling teeth, regarding repairs before they become major renovations. Expectations should be laid out clearly, even if it means including them in the lease.
I would expect a lot of disagreement out there, and tear me apart if you must, but this is the personal viewpoint of someone who has lived on both sides of the lease.
Regarding the mail–I know in my neighborhood, mail delivery is awful, and the postman recently warned us of a rash of mail thefts.
We had small separate mailboxes for us and the tenants, but the mail was NEVER properly sorted.
So we recently installed a large weatherproof mailbox with a key. All the mail goes in one box, and everyone has a key. Happiness reigns.
look, it’s ridiculous to have to wait for your mail simply because you have the audacity to rent an aparmtment instead of own a million dollar brownstone. comments like “go live in a building with a doorman” are obnoxious and immature. i’m sure you’re a real hit at your tea parties.
In terms of the mailboxes for all tenants..
Depending on how many tenants in the brownstone, it may not be possible to hang 4 mailboxes on the exterior because of lack of space. And aesthetically, it just doesn’t look good.
Even, if you do have separate mailboxes, the majority of the time the post office bundles everything for one address in a big ol’ rubberband jumble.
How absolutely shocking that there are landlords “lurking” on this board. Who would have imagined that the ranks of brownstone owners contain actual landlords? What a surprising turn of events!
I’m appauled to hear that a landlord would do this.
The tenants should be able to recieve their mail and not wait for a LL to distribute it when they feel like it . This is nonsense…