Contacting Landlord
Do I have any rights to contact my landlord directly? I have never met him or spoken to him- ever since I moved in I have dealt with the Superintendent directly. The superintendent has not been responding to a lot of issues in my building and I was wondering if he is obligated to give…
Do I have any rights to contact my landlord directly? I have never met him or spoken to him- ever since I moved in I have dealt with the Superintendent directly. The superintendent has not been responding to a lot of issues in my building and I was wondering if he is obligated to give me the Landlord’s contact info if I ask for it.
Thanks in advance, and I would appreciate if any one has any info or tips on how to deal with a negligent superintendent and absent landlord.
To tell you the truth, the only things that are serious and that the city will compel him to fix are the roaches and no hot water. Also, for the roaches, all he’s required to do is pay for an exterminator. They won’t actually eliminate the roaches, especially if the problem is being created by tenants.
Oh yeah, and don’t you have any friends who are lawyers who could help you out?
tybur6:
Don’t you have friends who could help you move?
Fuck being nice to him. Give him some attitude back and don’t be afraid to raise your voice and make a stink. Call the city every day and get them involved. Be a pain in their asses as i’m guessing you will end up looking for a new place once your lease is up anyway.
Thank you all for your responses. The problems in the building are mostly in the common area. The stairs are not well maintained and feel like they are about to break. After a leak in the entrance was fixed after almost 2 years, the plaster wasn’t cleaned up for a whole month. The garbage left in the trashcans(by some tenants) inside is left there- stinky and now with cockroaches.. The lightbulbs aren’t changed. It’s straight up dirty! He hires a guy I have seen around the street asking for money to come in and “mop” the stairs what seems to be every 2 months- and he seems to mop it with dirty water. The building had no hot water for 4 days. The front doors constantly get stuck and hard to open. I know it sounds like a rant, but if you have ever been to my building you would know what I mean. I’ve tried being polite with him and being nice- and he is still very mean to me. He acts like we are an annoyance, when it is his job to maintain and fix the issues of the building.
Call HPD, get an inspector to come down and see what kind of violations are present. Go to http://www.nyc.gov/hpd and put in your address to see what other complaints are logged in by other tenants and whether you can get together with them. With violations in hand you may be able to withhold the rent for a bit until the problems are hopefully resolved, but not withhold it long enough for them to bring any legal action against you. Unless they totally ignore the violations and you take a chance in housing court as you could then be entitled to a rent abatement. The court will appoint a lawyer to you for free btw. keep a log book of communications with the super, and send all letters to the LL and CC’d to the super notarized and certified. Those letters automatically become legal documents when notarized and certified and can then be presented in court, IF it came to that. As someone said earlier, tough shit on the super and LL so feel free to be a bit difficult with them.
What are the problems?
Echoing the others who say of course you can and should communicate with the LL directly. There is a very small chance that your absentee LL really doesn’t know what the super is doing. S/he might prefer it that way, but it’s possible the super’s been handing them a line and they might want to hear otherwise. In some ways, that’s irrelevant, because you still have the right to services, and you still have the right to contact them directly. Go to ACRIS to find the LL’s address. Write to them via certified mail. If you do not know the block and lot number, then go to the ACRIS link that says “Search by Parcel Identifier”, and click on the button for address lookup: http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/Scripts/DocSearch.dll/BBL
Also, before writing to the LL, it would be worth your time to consult the attorneys, available at no cost at the help desk at Kings County Housing Court, 140 Livingston St.
Oh yeah, and can you pay for the lawyer you want me to get because I’m breaking my lease. Oh, and maybe the cash I’ll need to settle the contract I just defaulted on?