Living Through Renovations
Hi all — I live in a 2 unit brownstone. Our landlord has decided he wants to convert the units to condos and has to do a good deal of renovation in order to do so. He expects us to stay in the home while this renovation is being performed. I am trying to figure…
Hi all — I live in a 2 unit brownstone. Our landlord has decided he wants to convert the units to condos and has to do a good deal of renovation in order to do so. He expects us to stay in the home while this renovation is being performed. I am trying to figure out what our options are and am having a tough time finding information (perhaps there isn’t any). Is there any legal guidance that you can recommend re: whether he can perform these renovations while we’re living there? I imagine they’ll take a few months.
We’d be amenable to getting out of our lease early, but I think he’ll say no to that — he clearly wants to earn rent while doing the renovations because he’s trying to get our housemates to extend their lease through the end of next year, which is when he thinks the conversions will come through. I can’t imagine living through 3-4 months of renovations at the rent we’re paying (you don’t even want to know).
Any thoughts you have would be most appreciated!
Check to see if he has filed permits. This might give you a better sense of what’s going on.
But yup…sounds like he’s expecting way way too much.
Building a roof deck? That would probably fly, as loud as it could get. Structural work inside. Not a chance.
Good luck and keep us posted.
I don’t have anything substantive to add–I agree with all of the above. Just want to say that as a landlord, I hate assclowns like this guy giving the rest of us a bad name. We won’t even do so much as changing a lightbulb without tons of notice and agreement from our tenants, and this guy wants to do a gut renovation? Absurd.
KTParkSlope, what everyone else says above is correct. You certainly have the right to void the lease based on the Warranty of Habitability clause of your lease once any construction work begins, plus there is a very good likelihood there is also a clause stating that the landlord and tenant agree to the lease based on “as is/where is” whereby you have agreed to lease the apartment based on the condition that existed at the time you signed the lease. Seems your preference would be to get out of the elase, which you would have the right to do the moment construction commenced in your apartment. However, bedstuytownhouse is correct as well – if you were happy with your living accomodations and happy with the lease terms and wanted to continue unchanged, you would have the right to prevent your landlord from making these types of renovations until your lease ended, as your lease also has a right to quiet enjoyment.
Along with the outwardly grossly inconvenient renovations, depending on how your building is set up they might need to reconfigure electric, heating and such. You might want to check that too. How this happens in winter without impacting you is a little beyond me.
Sorry OP. You’ll have plenty of recourse to get out of lease so don’t worry about that. You don’t have to agree to this kind of stupidity.
Good luck!
Vinca and Slopefarm have the right of it. The landlord cannot force you to allow that kind of construction while you are a tenant. And like everyone else has said, the partment will be unlivable- why shuold you be paying for the “privilege” of living in utter chaos. Having lived through a gut reno of my bathroom a few years ago- that was bad enough but the whole apartment? Your LL is delusional.
As everybody has said- this will be a nightmare scenario. No way you can live through this type of work, covered at night is baloney (I work in the industry and have done this many times, the place will be a mess).
By the looks of this, is he even filing for permits? probably worth looking into.
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov
Sounds like you are in for a confrontation, and it sounds like this guy gets into a lot of them, so get ready.
A LL here (but not OP’s). Pretty unconscionable of LL to expect you to live through that and pay rent. That is major work. LL’s either never actually seen or done reno of this scale or he’s trying to put one over on you. Yes, consult the sources vinca suggests, but, IMHO, I see no reason to roll over on this one. At minimum, LL should be offering to put you up elsewhere while reno goes on and have you move back in to complete the term once reno is done, if it is only a matter of a week or two. Whatever the strength of your lease language and the law, LL should not be imposing on you like this. It is not right.
You don’t even have to let him into your apartment to do the work.
none of your rights are up to him. Vinca’s suggestion is excellent as usual. And this is absolutely not something you do not want to live through.
No one is going to come in as a new renter, so he is obviously trying to suck your life dry all that he can. I suggest correspondence in writing and to not trust what he says to you verbally.