Landlord Reference Letter for Coop Board
I am currently in escrow for a coop apartment (23 unit building) in Prospect Heights.
I am working on my board application, and have pretty much everything, including glowing personal and professional reference letters. I have good financials, excellent credit, and my father as a solid guarantor to help me even more (the board is aware of the guarantor situation and approved it before my offer was accepted).
My one major worry is regarding my landlord reference letter. I have been renting an apartment for almost five years, and have not had the most positive relationship with my landlord to say the least.
He is maybe a notch above a slumlord. The building violates several regulations, as he prefers to skirt the law instead of taking care of them, like a chronically broken front door and lack of providing recycling. Among some other things I’ve dealt with during my time here: I saved my building from dying one night due to a boiler problem caused by my drunken super living illegally in the basement, the same boiler breaking almost every year, an unaddressed mouse infe station, no heat for days on end from time to time, hallways that have been cleaned only one time, 25+ gigantic roaches every summer, him letting an exterminator into my apartment without prior notice while I was not home (this was over a year after I reported the mice problem). He’s pretty much awful, and he doesn’t like me because I complain or report issues with the building.
I should also mention that he asks tenants for double deposit and (according to past neighbors I’m in touch with) never gives the deposit back. He’s also a broker for Corcoran and sends his underling to show the apartment to new tenants, who charges a 15% broker’s fee that I’m sure he takes almost all of.
Our mailboxes do not have locks on them and in an unlocked part of the building. The only way he will accept rent payments is by having us leave our rent checks inside of our unlocked mailboxes. I never know when he’s coming to pick it up, and I have to admit that this arrangement causes me to forget to leave my rent check there on the first of the month often. He sometimes doesn’t deposit my rent check for weeks on end even when I do pay on time.
I wrote to him asking for a reference letter this week but have heard nothing back. By the way, we also didn’t have heat during the same 3-4 days because the boiler went out and he was too lazy to come start it back up/ didn’t want to pay someone to do it during the holiday week. One of my long-time neighbors is a contractor and offered to restart the boiler, but he was too lazy to even come unlock the basement door for that. So, yeah. I doubt he’s rushing to write the letter if he can’t even be bothered to provide heat for his tenants in January.
I’ve discussed the issue with my broker, who is talking to his manager about things we can do to get around this. I have to submit my board package next week and am worried. I’m also worried about what the letter will say if he does write it.
Does anyone have insight on ways to deal with this issue? I am wondering if I should start collecting letters from previous landlords, and have a few of my current neighbors and others who’ve lived in the building write letters confirming that my landlord is a crook.
Other than my rent tardiness (due to the manner in which he collects it — I have offered to set up an automatic transfer to his account if he wanted but he refused other methods), I am a great tenant. I have done a ton of repairs on my apartment, like cleaning and fixing the 100-year-old decrepit windows, hiring exterminators to repair holes in the walls, fixing plumbing issues by myself, paying for a locksmith to put in new locks when the old ones were broken. I scrub every inch of grout between the tiles in the bathroom. I keep the appliances sparkling. I am a good, quiet, responsible neighbor. None of my many neighbors have ever had a single complaint about me or my dog.
Anyway, I am just looking for advice at this point.
Thank you!
Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago
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6 replies
brokelin | 4 years and 4 months ago
This is what I would do, even if I had a good relationship with my landlord. I would write a very short, few sentence letter from him, stating that I was a tenant of his at x address from x date to x date, paid rent in a monthly amount of $x (starting rent) to $x (ending amount) over that time, that you always paid your rent on time (whether or not true) and were a fine tenant (substitute other word for fine if you like.) Add a final line saying he wouldn’t hesitate to rent to you again (if you think you can get away with that.)
Type his name, as owner at x address. Leave room for him to sign it above his name.. Stop by his office and see ask him nicely to sign it. As someone else noted, as a tenant who complained, he will likely to be happy to see you go, and will sign. This is especially true if you are a rent stabilized tenant, or are paying a rent below the market, or even if you are paying market as he may take a fee for renting it to the next tenant, and will certainly raise the rent if he can.
This way, you are in control of the letter that goes to the board, and you don’t risk having him send one to them complaining about you – it doesn’t matter that you already asked him to write a reference – don’t hold your breath, he isn’t going to do it. (Even with a boss you loves you, it is standard when you ask for a job reference letter to offer to write a draft, that they can then edit or add to, to start them off if they are busy – no one has the time to write reference letters.) In this case, just write one for him, and don’t ask him to participate in any way other than signing it.
He might sign a simple one you wrote just to get you on your way. No need for a glowing reference – that should suffice. If he doesn’t, get one from a former landlord. Write it yourself and just ask the former landlord to sign it. Don’t say you didn’t have a great relationship with him – if asked by the former landlord, or the board, just say you asked him, he’s busy and just couldn’t make the time, and you needed to get your board application completed. (I think it is ridiculous to ask for a landlord reference – if you are getting a mortgage, the bank has already checked to see that your credit is good. And who really cares if your landlord loved you enough to actually sit down and write a letter – even people who do love you don’t make time to do that!). Good luck.
cate | 4 years and 4 months ago
Just be sure there is nothing in your letters, application, or appearance at the interview the co-op would regard as a red flag. They’re looking for someone quiet who is not going to cause trouble. Don’t mention anything about your landlord, certainly not that he is a crook, nor even that you have fixed a lot of stuff yourself. Also don’t forget it’s entirely possible the co-op also has its own issues with water bugs, mice and repairs. I have yet to encounter a building in NYC that doesn’t. I would not mention these things.
Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago
@Bob Marvin True! Hopefully that works in my favor. Although I will say he has an acrimonious relationship with pretty much all of his tenants. I guess now my worry is whether he will write one in time. I need to get this board package in ASAP. And when I receive my loan commitment letter this week, I only have five days. So in case I don’t get it in time, I’d like to have back ups
RobertGMarvin
in Home Buying 4 years and 4 months ago
FWIW I think that if you’ve had an acrimonious relationship with your landlord the last thing he’d want to do is to delay your departure by writing a bad reference
Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago
@kms_bkyn — thank you for your input! I will ask my neighbor for a neighborly reference letter. He has lived in the building for over 20 years and we’ve gotten to know each other well, so hopefully it will have a great impact.
I always date my checks the first of the month, which my lender said was the most important thing when this issue arose as the bank asked for my landlord’s contact info. I can also write an addendum to go with my neighbor’s letter stating the issues with my landlord.
I’ll reach out to the landlord I had prior to this one to ask for a letter as well. Thanks again!
kms_bkyn | 4 years and 4 months ago
I am a former treasurer of a 100 unit coop. I don’t think I would have been too concerned if a landlord didn’t write a letter if everything else in your package looked good. That being said, I would try to get a letter from a previous landlord if you can. You could also highlight your bank statements that show that you paid rent every month. If it shows that your rent is paid late (because it gets deposited late), perhaps a short note saying that it often takes a long time for your landlord to cash your rent check. Also, does the package require personal references, too? If so, perhaps adding one extra personal reference from a neighbor might be a good idea.