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?
if you haven’t done it already, try posting to tenant.net’s forums, lots of good advice there. but your friend might better spend their time just looking for a cheaper apartment; it doesn’t sound like anything can be done with the current situation.
I counseled tenants about their rights (and obligations) for many years, and was always amazed by how many people trusted their landlords and never read their leases before they signed them. ALWAYS READ YOUR LEASE BEFORE YOU SIGN IT.
That being said, look on the tenant.net site. There may not be any way to get around paying the “legal rent,” but if there are violations in the building, the landlord may not be able to charge the increase. And I agree with Anon 9:21: try to negotiate with the landlord for another preferential rent.
Tell your friend to look in Kensington (Ocean Parkway)..rents are still affordable. I pay 1K for a nice size 1 bedroom with 10′ ceilings. Very quiet safe area.
Rent Registration is filed with the DHCR, not sent to each individual tenant. As a tenant you can request a copy of the rent registration for your apartment for the last 4 years. If you see something that doesn’t look right you can request documentation from the landlord to back up the numbers.
Beyond that there are two things to consider, 1) if this was a free market apt. the landlord could raise your rent to anything he wanted, you only had a one year lease so there are no guarantees beyond that. A preferential rent is basically the same as a free market apt. because it means that the legal rent is higher than the market will bear. However, you still benefit from the fact that you must be offered a renewal.
If the apt wasn’t worth $1200 last year it probably isn’t worth $1431 this year so talk to your landlord and offer him what you think it’s worth. He will most likely take it unless he is trying to get the turnover he needs to eventually decontrol the unit.
I agree with those posters who recognize your relationship as a legal one guided by the contract you signed and the applicable regulations.
That said, in dealing with a possible renewal, there is what the landlord may ask for and what he will reasonably settle for. Have you tried to negotiate a new preferential rent? If he puts the apartment on the market, what can he rent it for? If he does that, what transaction costs will he incur (painting, carrying an empty apartment for some period of time). For yourself, what will be your costs in finding another place and moving, if it comes to that?
I love the “on closer reading of the lease”…get a little closer the first time next time and then you won’t need to burden everyone with frivolous “legal action”…
Being disappointed and surprised doesn’t quite seem the basis for a legal action. And I am not sure how this landlord has been “unscrupulous” or “abusive”. If your friend had read her lease when she signed it she would have seen she was getting a one year break in the rent. She was simply wrong when she thought a voluntary discount would equate a legal right down the road. The other way of thinking about this is that she had over 30% break on the legal rent for a year. The issue of the “broken Promises” to fix is another one – clearly if there were code violations etc your friend would have been in her rights to ask for those earlier. Bringing it up now reads a bit like sour grapes. Of course, as I have advised before, your friend can simply ignore the termination of her lease, allow her landlord to drag her to court, and get a few extra months to look for an apartment. But since landlords look to see the housing court history of potential tenants she probably won’t get anyone to rent to her. But of course no one likes to be surprised about their living situation…
This happened to us, too. We had a rent stabilized apartment that we originally negotiated about $100 cheaper in rent, then we put work into the apartment ourselves; new sink, medicine cabinet, kitchen floor. When we were up for renewal the rent increased based on the original stabilized rent. We politely asked the landlord to actually “decrease” the rent because we fixed some of the things in the apartment ourselves. We negotiated and we just kept the same rent instead of having it increased or decreased, which was fine with us.
It sucks, but I don’t think there is anything your friend can do. The landlord seems legally within his rights to charge the rent he is charging.
How hard is it really to find a new place to live in 60 days anyway? Really, c’mon?
I see how he’s a d*ck. However I also see that he hasn’t really done anything wrong per se except not send her a rent registration form but I’ve rented here for 12 yrs with 2 diff landlords and have never gotten one. I agree with the 1st reply completely, start learning your rights and options.