Bill Would OK Harassment Suits Against Landlords
The City Council introduced a bill yesterday that would allow renters to sue landlords for harassment. At present, tenants are only able to sue landlords over specific violations, not over patterns of harassment. The would-be law has grown out of the citywide hemorrhage of affordable housing, because more and more tenants are claiming that landlords…
The City Council introduced a bill yesterday that would allow renters to sue landlords for harassment. At present, tenants are only able to sue landlords over specific violations, not over patterns of harassment. The would-be law has grown out of the citywide hemorrhage of affordable housing, because more and more tenants are claiming that landlords are trying to drive them out of rent-regulated apartments by systematically denying basic services like heat or hot water, according to renter advocacy groups. Unsurprisingly, landlords think the bill could lead to a lot of baseless lawsuits. Think this would be a good thing?
Bill Would Give Tenants Right to Sue Landlords [AM New York]
Hot Water for Landlords [NY Post]
Photo by West Side Neighborhood Alliance
How about a law saying a landlord can sue a tenant for harassment. My RC tenant, who pays $240 for a 6 room 1300 square foot apartment is constantly calling the city claiming there is no heat or no hot water. Her apartment is the hottest in the whole building because she is on the top floor and I’ve gone up there with a thermometer and shown her that it’s sometime 74 or 76 and she’s complaining! So the city comes and gives me fines for things like “encumberances in the hallway” or cracked plaster in an airshaft for god’s sake. Even she doesn’t give a shi##t about these violations. I spend more money heating her apartment than she pays in rent, and still have to paint it, repair it, etc. It’s a great law, she has family who have absolutely no responsibility to help her out, but the city instead shifts that burden onto a stranger, a private citizen, because he’s a landlord.
“I’m a foreigner, so pardon the question. Do owners of buildings with RC/RS units get some sort of major tax break or subsidy to help cover the normal increases in their property taxes and expenses?”
Rent stabilized and rent controlled apartments are subject to annual increases in rent as set by the NYC Rent Guildlines Board. These increases are pegged to the increases in landlord costs. Also, once the rent reaches a certain level through these regular increases, it is de-stabilized.
When a building with RC/RS units is sold, the owner is or should be well aware of the laws regarding these apartments. The fact that these apartments may not command market rents is (or should be) factored into the amount paid for the building.
All the rent stabilization/control haters who post here really should read this:
http://www.maketheroad.org/article.php?ID=359
This article reports on vicious harrassment of low-income tenants in Bushwick. I read a comment here recently about how putting a face on this issue changes things. Well, this article shows you some faces and lives.
I’m not a fan of rent stabilization as a way to ensure that lower and middle income have housing. I’d rather see a substantial increase in Section 8 vouchers. But there’s no question that we need to provide some means for poor to middle income people to be able to afford decent housing.
I doubt that most of you have the slightest idea of the lousy housing conditions and options faced by the people who clean your houses and babysit your children. Never mind the elderly and disabled among us. I work in a housing program for people with special needs. I have had people nearly weep when shown a tiny studio apartment with a wall kitchen only a half size refrigerator, for which they pay 30% of their income. These folks are coming from utterly dilapidated SROs.
Show me anywhere in the country where the free market has solved the problem of housing for the lower end of the income spectrum.
The disdain on this website for low & middle income people is really remarkable. The second gilded age indeed. If you recall, the first one didn’t end so well.
As someone who was harrassed (not because he wanted me to move, but because he was an asshole) by my last landlord, I think this law is good. Anything to make someone be a reasonable human being when it doesn’t come naturally.
Not to count your money but you brought it up – if you and your husband have advanced degrees you EASILY are making a combined income of 120K a year, plus generous benefits and 2-3mo off to allow you to earn more.
By most definitions you are well established in the upper reaches of the ‘middle class’ and should be able to afford a non-stabilized apartment in the 3,000+ a month price range
– sorry but I fail to see why you are entitled to a below market-rate apartment subsidized by an individual landlord (although for the record – I do support RS w/ vacancy decontrol to allow neighborhoods to maintain some stability.)
I’m a foreigner, so pardon the question. Do owners of buildings with RC/RS units get some sort of major tax break or subsidy to help cover the normal increases in their property taxes and expenses?
Do the repairs and bill the unit owner. The board has power of attorney – right?
Here’s a related question. I lived in a small self-managed co-op with three rent-stabilized tenants. The absentee sponsor/landlord obviously wants to get rid of the tenants because he pays more in maintenance than he receives in rent. Additionally, the landlord has done little if anything to maintain these apts. However, if the tenants complain to HPD about any repairs inside their apartments, it is the co-op and not the absentee sponsor/landlord that is notified/liable to make said repairs. Therefore, the co-op is caught in the middle of a bitter battle b/w landlord and tenant. How can the co-op address this problem?
9:19 has got it. The system should be fair and offer protection for renters AND landlords.
— A landlord