sro
thinking about buying a brownstone in Ft. Greene that is a legal sro. There is one rent stabilized tenant in the building, and the owner has a certificate of non harrassment. What are the pros and cons of this purchase? Can you renovate a house with a tenant in it or are you asking for…
thinking about buying a brownstone in Ft. Greene that is a legal sro. There is one rent stabilized tenant in the building, and the owner has a certificate of non harrassment. What are the pros and cons of this purchase? Can you renovate a house with a tenant in it or are you asking for trouble?
>>I didn’t realize you could get a Certification of No Harrassment (which I think is the technical name on the document) with a tenant still living in an SRO.<<
If the tenant still in the building is NOT in one of the SRO rooms, you only have to get the CofNH from the SRO tenants. If I am guessing which building this is correctly, the tenant is in the single Rent Stabilized unit, and (unfortunately imo) just got a new 2 year lease.
Not sure if anyone is still reading this thread, but here is a worse case scenario for what might happen when you buy an apt w/ existing tenants who you want to evict.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/nyregion/09shoot.html?ref=nyregion
I didn’t realize you could get a Certification of No Harrassment (which I think is the technical name on the document) with a tenant still living in an SRO.
It’s difficult buying a place with existing tenants. It doesn’t always NOT work out, but it’s a real gamble and you have to be very careful about the situation you’re inheriting.
The tenant isn’t necessarily going to want you to improve the place because you can claim those improvements and raise their rent… and if they have a good deal they’re not going to want to move.
I’m not going to go into detail but I was the Super of a rent stabilized building for years and I saw it ALL. There are some people (plenty apparently) who will stick to another person simply to do it. So suss out the tenant, definitely meet them and get a sense of their lifestyle, etc. — and don’t trust your gut feeling! 🙂 Yes, legally you can renovate around them but it could be asking for trouble.
You can do it theoretically, but you have to be prepared for the tenant to call 311 and get inspectors every day.
This is another example of a possible purchase that would be very difficult but makes sense if the price reflects the complexity of dealing w/ a rent stabilized tenant.