Illegal Washer Dryer
My rent controlled tenant has installed a washer dryer. This is causing sinks to back up, creates noise to the tenants below her, and could cause a massive flood if it overlowed. Anyone have any tips on how I can get her to remove it. I’ve already given her a letter explaining why I want…
My rent controlled tenant has installed a washer dryer. This is causing sinks to back up, creates noise to the tenants below her, and could cause a massive flood if it overlowed. Anyone have any tips on how I can get her to remove it. I’ve already given her a letter explaining why I want it removed but she simply refuses. I’d prefer not to just consult a lawyer. thx.
I have regular tenants…nice ones at that. They asked me first about a dish and I spelled out the terms…cannot be visible from the front of the house, has to be mounted on the side wall of the peripet and the wire must run down the back of the building.
If any one of those things was violated I would have taken it down immediately.
2:43 and 3:23, washing machines can cause massive backups in older building that are not equipped to handle the amount of water and suds sent down the drain all at once. the pipes are not big enough.
it is not so easy to re-pipe the entire plumbing line of a building out to the street main. it costs 1,000’s of dollars that the owner is never going to recoup, because the rent-controlled tenant’s rent does not go up enough to ever cover the added expense.
it is also not fair that the other building residents have to deal with this tenants WASTE water backing up into their sinks while they are brushing their teeth, and bathrubs while they are showering, or that the owner should be forced to spend thousands on an improvement that does not benefit them in any way.
Rent Controlled tenants are a different breed. They believe that because they exist, they are entitled to EVERYTHING! As long as they actually don’t have to pay for it themselves.
In principle, I believe good relations breed good relations back. But how do you reason with people who are so closed off from the real world, that a washer becomes the subject of rants about society and how “they” are trying to screw “us”! And I don’t have a nice old brooklyn old school lady as a tenant, I have a MOTHERF. . . gasoline drinking, foul mouthed, wife abuser. He’d rather bust my kneecaps than talk.
karka – where does the article say she has no legal recourse to stop the use? it says that a 2005 regulation “…allows a landlord to impose [a] surcharge when a [RC/RS] tenant has installed a washer, dryer or dishwasher – portable or permanent – without prior consent… [The regulation] does not require landlords to allow tenants to install the appliances…”
I’m sorry, but what is wrong with working with your tenants to allow them to watch TV and wash their clothes at home? Don’t you do these things?
wnat a lawyer recommendation…David Fainkich
david@dfainkich.com
he’s an excellent real estate lawyer
They’ve already installed satellite TV w/o your approval, now W/D. If you allow this to continue and actually accomodate by changing plumbing etc, what’s next? A hot tub/suana/whirlpool waterbed combination and an illegal pool in the backyard? You’ve gotta draw the line, at least consult a lawyer, in person, to find out what your options are. No one said being a landlord was necessarily easy or cheap, but you’re allowing yourself to be trampled by an unreasonable tenant.
I should add that if the lease forbids this it can be used as grounds for eviction.
found this old article
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/10/realestate/10home.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
So the bad news it seems you have no legal recourse to do anything to stop unauthorized appliance use unless you can prove actual damages due to appliance.