Illegal apartment
So how much risk is there in renting an apartment illegaly? By illegal I mean, renting out 3 apartments in a legal 2-family. All the apartments are separate and have kitchen and bath. Utilities for two of the units would have to be shared. What’s the worst that could happen? Thanks!
I know someone who rents a 2-bed apt, the 2 beds and a bath of which have been illegally constructed belwo ground (albeit with intersting use of window wells so it’s not dark.) His landlord told him that there’d be an inspection, and he (landlord) called in workmen to seal up parts of the bottom floor and move furniture so it wouldn’t look like anyone lives there whil being inspected (and I suspect he’s also being paid off). I told my friend he’s got a good case to stop paying his high rent it he wants to!
yeah. who exactly is the shady one? the tenant or the landlord? duh.
anon 10:13–the end of your post was quite humorous. warning someone who knows they’d be renting an illegal apartment that their tenants might be “shady.” good one!
what if you have a roommate on a floor and are charging them, but it’s not an apartment?
Hello New Yorkers,
If you have anything to say about the apartment rentals or living in NYC, please post it here.
http://www.empire-apartments.us/community
article from last year about this:
http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0629,tucker,73881,15.html
I bought a house where the prior owner had done what you are proposing.(it was delivered vacant) They turned a 2 family into a 3. What ended up happening is the person in the illegal unit (it was a basement) called up the buildings department and reported it. The owner got multiple violations on the house. The violations were not that expensive to clear up but the big problem was that her tenant started withholding rent and legally there was nothing she could do. You can’t legally collect rent on an illegal apartment. That really is your biggest risk. You can end up with a tenant paying no rent and you have to go to court to evict somehow. This individual who had done this ended up moving out of the apartment and renting another illegal unit from one of my neighbors and did the exact same thing again. There are some shady people out there and I don’t know how you would screen for something like that. Personally i don’t think its worth risk, though apparently MANY people in brooklyn seem to do it so *shrug*.
http://home2.nyc.gov/html/dob/downloads/pdf/dob_Illegal.pdf
the worst? A fire starts in the kitchen of the illegal apt, burns down the entire house and then your insurance company won’t pay out because the apt is illegal. Then you get sued by the other tenant because everything they have is lost (hopefully not life) and they say you were negligent because you rented an illegal apt that caused the fire.
You file for bankruptcy and spend the next 10 yrs trying to dig yourself out of the hole.
The not so bad? You get caught by DOB, they issue fines of up to $3025/day (yes, per day) plus you have to pay an architect and licensed contractor to rip out the apt and restore it to its previous use.
I believe there are also issues if you have a deadbeat tenant as the regular landlord tenant court will not hear cases for illegal apts.
Other than these minor risks you should be all set. Go for it.