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These guidelines are NOT for tenants of rent-stabilized or rent-controlled buildings. In that case you should call the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal at (718) 739-6400. 1. You have the right to a warm bed at night (and day). 1. Your landlord has the right to your rent, paid in full and on time. 2. Your landlord has the right to withhold your deposit
3. Your landlord has the right to know who is living in your apartment (people and pets) i.e. if your roommate moves out, you cannot just move someone else in without your landlord’s permission. 4. Your landlord has the right to proper advance notice of when you are moving out. 5. Your landlord has the right to know if you are on extended leave. 6. Your landlord has the right to know if there are repairs needed. Some other tenant responsibilities: 1. You must follow rules posted by your landlord, unless the rules violate your rights or the law. 2. You must maintain the fire extinguisher, smoke detector, and carbon monoxide detector. Your landlord must provide them. 3. You must repair any damages that you or your guests have caused. 4. You must respect your neighbors and keep the noise level down. 5. You must maintain the cleanliness of the apartment building (and preferably your apartment as well). One thing your landlord is not responsible for: your belongings. You can never be too safe. Document everything. Get whatever you can on tape or in official documents. The effort you put into it will pay off later. You should also always be polite. You never know what might come back to bite you if you decide to tell your landlord how you really feel. Whenever you can, keep the money in your court. It is much easier to fight to keep your money than to get it back. Unless it says otherwise in your lease, don't pay your last month's rent and let the landlord keep the deposit. That way it's their responsibility to bring you to court for any damages. Do not pay for repairs unless it's absolutely necessary. Send all bills the way of your landlord. Your lease does not need to stipulate that you must have heat, hot water, sanitary conditions, and working appliances and plumbing. New York State guarantees that every landlord will rent a safe and decent place to live via the Warranty of Habitability. Even if there is a clause in your lease that says you are renting it "as is" and the "as is" means there's a broken heater or no running water, you are still entitled to these rights. Likewise, it is illegal for your landlord to attempt to get you to give up these rights for a decrease in rent. See the Discrimination and Harassment section if this is the case for you. Heating Requirements The heating season is between October 1 and May 31. During that time, the temperature in the apartment building must be 68 degrees between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. if the temperature outside drops to below 55 degrees. Between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., the temperature must be maintained at 55 degrees if the temperature outside drops below 40 degrees. The hot water temperature must be maintained at 120 degrees 24 hours a day, year-round. Pests and Sanitation Your landlord is required by law to take all steps necessary to rid the public areas of the building from rats, mice, roaches, and other vermin. Method #1: Withholding Rent Step 1: Put all of your complaints in writing. Be as detailed as possible. Send this to your landlord and the superintendent in a certified letter with signature confirmation and a return receipt requested. This letter should include: 1. Each time you have discussed this problem with the landlord or superintendent with dates and as many details as possible. 2. What the problems are - again with as many details as possible, and how the problems have harmed you. 3. A request that these problems be fixed with an end-date that allows reasonable time. Keep a copy of this letter and the signature confirmation. Step 2: Your landlord will do one of four things: 1. Make the repairs, in which case, congratulations. 2. Offer no response. 3. Refuse to make the repairs. 4. Respond with some excuse, saying they will fix it but at a later date than what you suggested. In the case of no. 4, make them agree to fix all repairs by their suggested date in writing. If they refuse, tell them it's no deal and you will either a. call an inspector and/ or b. withhold rent until the repairs are made. Hold your ground. Whatever your landlord says to you, as long as these repairs were not your own fault, then you are in the right. For cases 2-4, you will want to call for an inspection. You can call 311 or The New York City Housing Inspection Unit at (212) 960-4800. For a building-wide inspection, contact Chief Inspector Make sure you get the inspector's name, identification number, and the department s/he represents. Unfortunately someone must be home from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the day of the inspection. It's like waiting for a delivery from FedEx. Perhaps there is someone in the building who works from home who can do this or you may have to take a day off from work. During the inspection show them everything - in your own apartment and in the shared spaces of the building too. You may want to prepare a list beforehand, so that you don't leave anything out. Step 3: Get a copy of the inspection report. This is very important for step 4, as is holding onto the letter and signature confirmation from step 1. Step 4: Withhold rent. This is a serious step. If you do not do this right, you can be evicted. As long as you follow the previous steps exactly, you should be fine. Here's what you do: Once you obtain the inspection report (and one from a health inspector too if needed) put the details of the report into another letter to send to your landlord. Notify them that you will be withholding rent until the repairs are made. Put this in a certified letter with signature confirmation, and hold onto the letter and receipt. Do not spend the rent money. Put it in a separate account. If a judge finds that you did not have a good reason to withhold rent, then you may have to pay the full amount to the landlord. I should point out that you may never see a judge. It is your landlord's responsibility to start the eviction process or bring you to court to get the money they feel they deserve. You should, however, be prepared at all times to defend yourself. If you're evicted, you will have to move fast. If you are called to court you should go, and see The Last Resort section for tips on what to do in that case. This method is what I would call a Safe Practice, since you are keeping the money and it's your landlord's burden to retrieve it. If you don't have nerves of steel however, and you can't dig your heels in the sand and hold your ground, then you may want to try another method instead. Method #2: HP Proceeding Step 1: Follow steps 1 and 2 from Method #1. Step 2: Go to the HP Clerk at the Housing Court and tell them you want to file an HP Proceeding. The Last Resort section contains more details on filing an HP Proceeding. You can call the HPD Tenants Assistance Unite for help at (212) 386-5000. Step 3: Go to Court. See The Last Resort section for tips on going to court. Method #3: 7A Proceeding In a 7A Proceeding, the tenants of a building ask the court to remove the landlord as the active manager of the building and appoint an administrator. The landlord still owns the building, but the rent is collected by the administrator and used to make repairs to the building. In order to issue a 7A Proceeding, at least 1/3 of the tenants must agree to it. Step 1: Follow steps 1 and 2 from Method #1. Step 2: Organize tenants. Follow the guidelines in the Organizing Other Tenants section or call the Community Action Unit at (212) 240-5096 or the HPD 7A Counseling & Assistance Unit at (212) 386-8834. Step 3: Go to Court. See The Last Resort section for tips on going to court. Discrimination The New York City Human Rights Law prohibits housing discrimination (that is the refusal to rent, sell, or approve the sale or rental of a housing accommodation) due to "actual or perceived race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, religion, disability, gender, marital status, alienage, citizenship status, age, lawful occupation, or because children maybe are, or will be in residence." If you are being discriminated against in this way call the New York City Commission on Human Rights at (212) 306-7500 or the New York State Division of Human Rights at (212) 722-2856. If your claims are substantiated your landlord can be fined up to $100,000 or $250,000 if it goes to the New York Supreme Court. The landlord may be required to attend an "Affirmative Relief" program. Harassment Harassment is the continuous course of action by a landlord, which is conducted with the purpose of driving the tenant to unwillfully vacate the apartment or waive his/ her rights for a lower rent. Harassment is the hardest thing to prove and the easiest thing to claim. I would not recommend taking this issue to court unless you can afford a lawyer. In most cases where landlords deny services or let their buildings deteriorate, it's because they know that the revolving-door tenant policy will make them more money than keeping the same tenants for a long time with relatively the same level of rent. This is called predatory equity and the practice is especially common in up-and-coming neighborhoods. If you're going to prove harassment, you essentially need to prove two things: that it is a pattern, and that it was done with the specific motivation to get the tenant(s) to move out. Showing a pattern is somewhat black and white. You need documentation, lots of it, and spanning a long period of time. The second part is much more difficult. Motive is a difficult thing for anyone to prove, which is why I suggest getting a good lawyer. You need to show that the landlord has returned or not deposited rent checks or that they refused to renew a lease without a good reason. It will also help your case if you are filing the claim along with many current and former tenants. Sexual Harassment If you are being sexually harassed, call the Housing Discrimination Clinic of the New York Law School at (212) 431-2176. You can also make a complaint to New York City Commission on Human Rights Other things you should know Many landlords have a "no pets" provision in the lease. Although, this is not always followed, and often landlords will use this to get someone to pay a higher rent if they have a pet. If your landlord has known about the pet for three months or more, then this "no pet" provision can no longer be used against you. If the pet is causing damage or is a nuisance to other tenants, that is a different story. There is power in numbers. It is always better to negotiate with your landlord, take them to court, or withhold rent if you have a large group to support you. You have more leverage and your claims are more substantiated. If you live in a small building, then maintaining a tenant's organization should not be too difficult if you are well organized and have good management skills. However, if you're dealing with 15+ tenants, then it's going to be harder to keep everyone happy and willing, and you're going to have a harder time keeping track of bookkeeping, complaints, etc. I recommend looking through TenantNet's Organizing Manual for tips. But, again, if this is a small building then many of these steps are unnecessary. If you're going to organize, you should establish at least one leader, no matter how small the group. You should also establish one person as a record keeper. This person should make a note of all the issues with the building, the complaints that are being made, documentation of these complaints, recordings (if possible) of negotiations with the landlord, etc. The leader's responsibility is to maintain solidarity. If you're dealing with a slumlord, chances are they've dealt with tenant's associations before and they know how to let the air out of the balloon. They will most likely use these two strategies: 1. Time. Even if you're withholding rent or taking your landlord to court, months and months will pass before you see any of the problems repaired. 2. Divide and Conquer. Your landlord will target a few tenants, issuing dispossess notices to them and not others. In this case you will want to support these tenants as much as possible. Help them with their cases, even go to court with them. You can also call the Metropolitan Council on Housing at (212) 693-0550 or the New York State Tenant & Neighborhood Coalition at (212) 695-8922 if you need help organizing. See The Last Resort section for tips on taking your landlord to court. Your landlord is only legally allowed to ask for the amount of one-month's rent to be kept as the security deposit, unless you have pets and then they can ask for twice that much. If the rent is raised in the renewal of the lease, they are allowed to ask you to add to the security deposit so that it equals the current rent. Your security deposit must be kept in a financial institution (i.e. a bank) in its own account, which earns interest. You have the right to know the name of this account and what bank is holding it. Landlords are entitled to take 1% of the interest generated for administrative costs. Rent can only be withheld if there are damages beyond normal wear and tear or as back-rent for rent not paid in previous months. The deposit can also be withheld for other reasons granted in your lease. Most leases contain a clause that says if the lease is violated, then the landlord may keep the deposit. Read your lease closely before you sign it, and before you go to court. If you pay your rent in cash your landlord is obligated to give you a receipt. But as a general tip, do not pay your rent in cash. |
