Unscrupulous landlord
Heres the story: About a year ago, my friend sees an apartment rental advertised on craigslist. for $1200/ mo. She goes to see it, likes it, but it seemed a bit overpriced for the neighborhood. Landlord says ” You seem like a nice person, I will offer it just to you for $1000/mo. She accepts,…
Heres the story: About a year ago, my friend sees an apartment rental advertised on craigslist. for $1200/ mo. She goes to see it, likes it, but it seemed a bit overpriced for the neighborhood. Landlord says ” You seem like a nice person, I will offer it just to you for $1000/mo. She accepts, signs 1 year lease. Numerous things which landlord had promised to fix in the apartment are somehow forgotten about.
A year later, Lease is now up for renewal. Landlord presents her with Renewal lease form. Form states that ‘legal rent’ is $1373/mo plus the standard 4.25% increase ($58.35). New rent will be $1431.35/mo. In case you missed it, landlord wants a rent increase of $431/mo., or nearly 50%! Landlord is also demanding an additional deposit ($431). I called the DHCR, and they informed me that the $1000/mo my friend had been paying was probably a ‘preferential rent’ and the ‘legal’ rent would be on the lease also. (it was- as we confirmed by a closer reading of the lease). Due to a little known change in the law in 2003, landlords are no longer required to abide by the original ‘preferential rent’ offered, but can raise it to the full ‘legal’ rent as soon as the renewal lease comes up, in one to two years. Landlord had never bothered to inform the tenant that her rent could go up nearly 50% the coming year, and also never bothered to send her a rent registration form, as required by law. I suppose he can claim he ‘forgot’). My friend now has sixty days to either find a new place or get stuck with the outrageous increase. Any advice/comments on dealing/negotiating with the landlord?
Sounds like she pissed off the landlord with all her demands and he doesn’t want her to stay. Nothing you can do. He’ll find someone else who isn’t going to complain about every little thing and charge them less.
Does the lease have to stipulate that the rent being charged is Preferential? Does it have to specify the Legal Rent as well? If the rent charged is preferential, but not stated as such on the original lease, can the rent go up to Legal on renewal if the rent registration form was sent to tenant, but original lease does not state the legal rent?
Next.
I’m not sure it is entirely fair to call the landlord “unscrupulous”. He offered her an extremely low rent on an apartment for 1 year. Are you saying that if he had told her it would be raised $500/year the next year she wouldn’t have taken it? Were there better options she passed over for this? Otherwise, she can look at it as having a cheap rent for one year, and using that savings on her new apartment.
Its a rough world.. Ive been “speeding” for ever…you know they all of a sudden change the law and lowered speed limits in the 70’s. Like just last week, I was doing 70 miles per hour..and this cop is like yo your doing 15 over the limit. Im like yeah…but common for over 60 year the that was an acceptable speed, and then all of a sudden 25 years ago they change the law and lower the limit…that isnt fair…let me go. He wasnt going to let me slide..but then I mentioned I wasnt a lawyer and how could I know what the state legislature passed, then he mentioned he read brownstoner and saw an similar kind of situation with a sweet girl and her rent stabalized lease. He felt so bad for her. So after listening to my store and seeing it was the same kind of story, he let me go…Yeah!!!
op here- Some clarifications:
The building is rent stablized. The real problem is not that she did not read the lease, but that she did not understand that the law had changed. For twenty years, landlords have been required to abide by the preferential rent offered, and to raise it by a prescribed amount. Therefore, having written in the lease that the preferrential rent was $1000, it would not matter what the legal rent was, it could have been $5000 a month, he would be required to abide by the rent he wrote in the lease as being the preferrential rent. Then in 2003, the law changed. Not being a lawyer, she did not know this. He, being an owner of several large properties, and having a well paid lawyer, did. How many of you know every change in rent law that occurs? IMHO, he used the knowledge his lawyer would have told him about to pull a classic bait and switch on her. In my book that is unscrupulous. She is also a bit older, so no, it is not so easy for her to move. And being on more or less a fixed income, it is not so easy to find inexpensive apartments.
find a cheaper apartment
she didn’t buy the place. she just rented it.
In a rsa lease their is a clause for preferential rent. I’m a landlord and the rent can only be increased on the prefer. rent. The filing for the apt is for the legal rent and preferential rent. If the lease does not state the two rents than you signed something that wasn’t preferential rent. Check with city to see what the landlord registered.
If the landlord did offer a “preferential rent”, it does imply that the legal rent was more than market rent. If I were your friend, I would check out equivalent rents in the neighborhood. If the rent, even with the increase, is still a good deal, there’s not much recourse, but if not, I’d speak with the landlord, mention what a good tenant she is, and see if he’ll limit the increase to $100 or so.
Also, did your friend pay a broker fee for the apartment? That might upset me, if I thought I was paying a fee for a rent stabilized apartment at a low rent.