If you can swing it hire a property management company and when you do? Really really do a lot of research and soul searching…. This hire will make or break you. Consider partnering with a good property manager because they are worth it. Use the same dilligence. I love my property managers but 9 times out of ten? I get little shit tenants with perfect credit scores and a lot of letters written by previous landlords who are glad to get rid of them. If you are good judge of people interview a tenant, if not? If someone loves the place thats a great start.
I just rented an office and the girl obviously loved it a great sign she went to a great school which I know and she had a great sense of humor…. Obviously make sure they can pay for it but you heard that in landlord school I am sure. C Did I say hire a great Property manager? A property will show itself in the numbers…. If you pay 10 dollars for a widget maker and will get 2 dollars to rent it…well? If you make about 2 to a month with all expenses accounted for then that is your profit…. If it were Me? I always find property which is ridiculously profitable….
D Your relationship with a tenant is complex…Home is more than a house and a tenant is using your house as a home…. This is a great responsability. Learn to show a respect for the tenant and not go legalize at the first provocation. The horrible property manager took the bait and insulted us slander we have that letter here now. I have found the best way to deal with difficult tenants is to give some ground. Some of my tenants pay late…. The problem with a lot of landlords is they have never dealt with a really bad tenant….
It is best to have a relationship with a tenant where rent comes in, you both are satisfied…. It really is not worth it sending a notice for rent that is a little late, you can get really screwed and not get rent delivered for a few months which will make a difference! While obviously we differ on a few things, I think every landlord eventually settles into a strategy that works fo them. Thanks for taking the time to comment — that was a killer long comment and I love those!
Your approach is really the long version of the Golden Rule, so I am sure it works well. Your point about seasoned tenants is well taken. There are plenty of landlords who resent seasoned tenants who know their state and local landlord-tenant rental ordinances. The abuse was so bad in one city, the city council even put out a flyer for prospective tenants. Darrell, You mentioned preety good stuff about how you manage the tenants and emphasize in how important is the property manager.
I actually hired a project manager to have my own crew by the hour so they make the make readys and attend the repairs of the leased properties, which call my property manager and then let us now. I have done that at the beggining and found that it only encourage them to repeat this process through the months… So my property managers adviced me to send the late notice and then the eviction notice… which the tenants didnt really hear, they thought it was a joke since they usually payed late… Well they did get called to court, together with my manager… they agreed to pay in full every 1st of each month….
They are happy tennants, with no complains and pay every month in time! I guess they just need to know that you are a good landlord but they have to pay on time.. Let me know what you think! Your management people are psychologically well schooled….. Tenants, like the lot of us, come in different flavors so to speak. A classic situation is one where you, the owner have to decide what kind of psychological profile you are dealing with.
In this situation the right call was made…. The reason I would consider this decision to set limits carefully is that some property markets, like San Francisco where I am located, have very strong tenant protection laws. When legal action is initiated by one side then it becomes a legal matter and it is officially an escalated situation.
Some of the tenants I have dealt with? Stereotypes which are used in actual written materials put out by many tenant protection groups in the Bay Area! I should say here that I definitely can see the need for limit setting at times. Take two landlords with opposite views of human nature and they will both be right about setting limits half the time haha. What separates the men from the boys, so to speak is something you did which is very important….. I tend to do the same…. I know I am a soft touch so I always run my approach by the resident hard ass on the team….. What I constantly emphasize in my business is the value of team building for these scenerios with any problems.
When dealing with the type of money, legal and psychological issues that landlording engenders the sooner one can get a team together the better. We all can easily get angry at tenants… they are at times trained button pushers! All of us can be offtrack in how we are profiling a situation with a tenant….. Sometimes tenants do indeed need limits. That is as much a fact as the fact that the sun will rise tomorow.
Hi Brandon, Good stuff. Google voice number, I have to try it. Quality product-quality tenants is the golden rule I follow. Never evicted anybody because of this simple rule. Quality rehabs are expensive. You have to find balance on how much quality you want, to get better tenants. This is a very important consideration. One of the best ways to start a real estate portfolio is to get a place with a decent and small in law.
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The improvements can all be made with great materials, you can learn about property and…. Now you should attract quality tenants with the place. A guy named Pedro at Home Depot talked me through my first bathroom installation… I almost burned a few studs down doing a weld……but hey!
However, I have not begun simply because of the negativity from relatives. Nevertheless, I am going to step out there and go for it….. I appreciate the comment! You can run potential deals past hundreds of eyes, ask questions when difficulties arise, and make some great friends in the process. Be sure to send me a colleague request! My husband and I just inherited a couple of rental properties from my father who just passed away. I enjoyed your tips and liked the number one tip but was wondering what is someone says they want to speak to the owner.
Then what would you say? I have a feeling I will be on this forum a lot in the next few months. Thanks for the advice! Hey Kay, thanks for the comment! Landlording can be a little bit overwhelming when you first start out, but hopefully this post has given you some guidance.
And never hesitate to ask questions over on the Forums. BiggerPockets is a community of thousands of landlords and other investors more-than-willing to help you through any of your tough times. I will have to do that once I get the new building up and running, still in the repair stage. Thanks for the advice. The one about not renting to family and friends is my absolute favorite—vintage! Great advice, thanks so much Brandon.
I am just in the beginning stages of becoming a Landlord, but, I have been actively running my own business for 12 years. If the answer is not the one they want, I just blame her, lol! It never fails that peoople will catch you off guard and you end up agreeing to something that you immediately regret. Just having the time to think about it , without giving them an immediate answer is invaluable.
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Lots of great other tips, thanks! My husband and I have also been landlording for five years. We offer quality housing, are very good at screening, and currently have really good tenants. One tenant always pays late, and I never collect the late fee. I have become friends with my tenants, but in the future, I will make our relationship strictly business. Overall, I really enjoy being a landlord, which always seems to surprise people when I say that. Thanks for the comment Jeanie. We tend to have tenants initial all the really important things, and then send them a highlighted copy when they argue with one of the points.
Good luck on your future landlording! On the other hand, some landlords do not even know what their leases say. They just print them from some website and hand them to tenants. Some landlords are surprised and irritated when the tenant takes the time to read the lease.
And it is very difficult to diplomatically tell a landlord about a problem with their lease. I still fondly remember the lease for a southern California apartment that required the tenant to keep the sidewalk free of snow. Another time the lease was so full of problems the landlord had not even noticed until I brought them up that I volunteered to write a new lease for him and he had several units.
I ended up signing the lease I wrote. Hi Brandon I am new to member of your community and i want thank you for sharing your knowledge with all of us and become more successful at becoming landlords. To me the two most important tips that I just learned are: Never be the owner ,only the manager. Set up a google business number. Always charge a late fee 4. Never rent to family or friends. Thank you Brandon for your tips.
Brandon, you brought up some very good points, I will be buying the book about landlording. I see many points from a lot of people, I mean no offense with anybody whatsoever, but I tend to analyze websites and their content before I add to their visitor number or participant number. The topic started excellent and somehow many people started talking about grouping properties and also introducing friends, my point is, how can a newbie like me in Real State , get to the information needed if is embeded between words of non-helpful information. I had an experience which I am sure will be appreciated by many, and which also can help many prevent errors, since I believe that was the purpose of creating this blog.
I just bought an appartment complex, one of the units had a tenant which was section 8, and had an agreement from 10 years ago, the previous owner had made a new agreement because she was disturbing other tenants and having other relatives live there…little that I knew about section 8 tenants…. I read before about section 8 being the best and the rent is on time…my point for bringing this up…quality tenants are really hard to spot or find, it only takes one bad encounter with the tenant to break that landlord-tenant relationship no matter what kind of tenant you have.
Most of the topics in this post are about complains like me, but I have not yet seen somebody actually posting a solution not to be rude. For example, any suggestions about screening a tenant? How much percentage is good to increment the rent by? There are many essential questions that I have not seen answered here…..
I have read a lot of people talking about how many more properties they want to buy or when to buy or about being landlords for 10 years, I believe we need a bit more substantial information.
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I am pretty new at the business, all I have found out so far is that a tenant is another human who will not pay you rent for 6 months if you give them an eviction letter, or who will not answer you right back if you set call schedules, remember there are many savy tenants and you have to expect a return to your actions. I was a renter myself, and if the faucet broke in the middle of the night and I needed to brush my teeth in the morning, I would not forget when the time to pay the rent came. I believe a few words when I called the landlord, despite of time, would have made a difference.
By the way, somebody mentioned having his private lawyer, I would tell you please think twice before going into a lawsuit vs a tenant, most likely you will lose, even if the tenant is out time, stress, money and a drestroyed property. Just joined a few days ago and I have no prior experience investing in RE. It seems like every fear that I have for getting started is explained in an article or a forum post. I am definitely learning alot and taking away alot of good information.
Branden, I am thinking about investing on property in a college town. I know you get more bang for your buck and most of the time the parents are paying. I of coarse will have my own contract for them sign. Do you have any experience being a landlord in a college town and what are the pros and cons? Or should I really be asking if you feel this is a good investment.
Please tell me if I am wrong. Thanks for you time in reading this and writing this forum. I learned a lot. Turner and I will keep that in mind. Need some advise if possible.. I have managed two buy two houses. I own them totally. I want to buy more houses so I can rent them out. Brandon,I read every bit of this thread and enjoyed it. I plan on retiring soon and will be purchasing some rental properties Condo types in Florida.
I like what you said about setting ground rules and expectations…I hope to follow up soon to let you all know how it turns out for me…. Can one set up LLC for rental property or properties that still have mortgage on them or do the properties have to be paid off free and clear? I disagree with 2 as a blanket policy, but agree with it as something to be particularly cognizant of. I have successfully rented to family and friends many times. It really comes down to boundaries and clear expectations. I would recommend doing a better job of editing. I seem to always find spelling and grammatical errors in articles that are otherwise great.
I started buying investment property at My properties have great cash flow, and I make a comfortable living. I never set a property up over 10 year note. So if I only pay the payment I still retire at 39… I would love to cut that intrest. But at same time this is my main income. What would be your advice?
One thing to check, do you have enough cash reserves? For example, what would you do if you had no tenants for six months? Or half your units vacant for a whole year? Does that frighten you, or are you covered for such a catastrophic circumstance? Make sure you can sleep at night if that were to happen before extending the spare cash elsewhere. Chad — in my humble opinion I would let the tenants pay your mortgages for you and reinvest your efforts on new challenges.
As an X gener myself in early half retirement mode myself I have found my time and abilities can be used in other ways. From a purely fiscal direction if you where speaking to a financial advisor about this they might encourage you to fund other investments with any overage you have and strengthen the other side of your portfolio in insurance, stocks, bonds, businesses, etc.. Joshua Macias — PhD Candidate.
Read and will be using some of your tips. My husband and I are fairly new to the rental business, less then 5 years. We have purchased our second rental property. Do you have a site or book to reference when setting on up? Do the advantages of using a lawyer outweigh the negative of doing on your own? Any helpful advise would be appreciated.
Also if managing your own properties, what do you do when out of town on vacation or any other reason? Also, just came to mind. In our lease it has our actual home address, as from what I read must be supplied to the tenant. Might be the law but usually you just have the mailing address official correspondence needs to go.
Can be your home, a PO Box, an office or your property managers business address. For example if you owned a property with a partner. A person needs to use caution though, and not abuse this wonderful tool. To me that is an evil abuse of the tool. Owners should always strive to keep rents well below market rates as this tends to create very loyal tenants who stay for years and years and rarely complain. Brandon, Great relevant content to help landlords successfully run there business. No one ever argues with policies. Lots of great info I plan to use. Especially the last one! Seems like many others agree!
I totally agree about separating the fact that you are both landlord AND owner. Setting hours can make your life much simpler as a landlord. I can say, without hesitation, this volume of information is very practical and following it will make some definite changes in how my rental properties are managed.
I have 2 rentals and both tenants are family. One of them is moma so that will have to stay. I want to buy a new home, and rent it out, I think it would be a good experience. I can see how it would be harder in low income housing, thanks for all the advice! Hello, in the rental agreement you use personal name as a landlord, also tax records will show you as the owner, so its kinda hard to convince the tenant that you are just a property manager landlord and not the owner.
Burt and I discussed this below, and it seems you could use an alias as your property manager name, and the ownership records, checks, etc would be in your real name as owner. What a great tip about not renting to family and friends!
Long story short, that led to a lot of unnecessary stress and ultimately, the end of their friendship. HVAC maintenance is key here in TX minimum one time per year , it will keep your asset tuned and your tenants happy. Thanks much for the reminder, never rent to friends or family!!! However, I keep making that same mistake over and over again and each time I am royally screwed. I have since rented one of my flats to my sister, and of course, the rent was discounted…and rules disregarded…this is the last time am ever going to do this.
I am now thinking not as the owner but the property manager. A huge difference in perspective. I agree with the charging a late fee point.
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Before I had this policy in place, several tenants would pay days after the rent was due. Thanks again for your time, effort insights and experience. I like what this post said about being knowledgeable. The landlord should be on top of everything and be able to answer questions effectively and confidently.
That is my opinion at least. Every future landlord should take advantage of this list. Knowing when you should outsource and when you can handle it yourself are keys to being successful. Thanks so much for posting. My tenants have been pretty sophisticated folks, most are employed as professionals in the law, business, or science fields. So, the only option in my case it seems would be to use my an alias as my property manager name, and if questioned say I am a self employed contractor..
There are several business reasons to do this, apart from privacy. There is nothing wrong with giving tenants an alias, tell them you are the property manager and ask them to make their checks out to the LLC. There is nothing shady about doing this. Criminals were accepting rent deposits in fake names from folks and skipping town.
I was an an apartment manager of a large building for over 10 years. No one ever asked for my ID. And yet the one tenant who does ask for your ID that you sent on his way could possibly have been the best tenant you ever had. But if you want to be greedy and gouge tenets for as much as the market will bear then you might be desperate enough to give tenants your social security number.
Tenants can more demanding they know you own the place because they assume you have money. If they just think you are just the manager they tend to go easier on you. I hated that I clicked every button on your page and none would give me the the Ultimate beginner guide to investing…. I signed up for the biggerpockets account and still nothing … it sucks!!!!
There are times where I talk with people about having rental properties and all they dwell on is how terrible it is being a landlord. I especially think that 9 is important: I really like how you recommend keeping all of your forms organized and in a file cabinet or something similar. Being organized and knowing where important documents or procedures are is essential for running an efficient business in my opinion.
Having a professional there with you who has experience and extra knowledge at managing properties is an invaluable asset that will help you gain experience as well! Great advice on the late fees. Your family rule makes a lot of sense, though in my own circumstances I rented a spare room to my brother for about 14 months with no problems.
Some of these comments seem really old, I need to add one thing. Denying you are the owner sounds good but when you are uncovered as a liar it bites your credibility. I have tried both ways. May I ask you which way disguise youself as a property manager, or not do you choose currently? How have you built your success while you show your tenant that you are the landlord?
I am a newbie. I strongly agree with you and lies will be discovered sooner or later. I am not a big landlord but here are the things, I believe, that have kept me from having problem tenants:. This may not always be possible and is the least enforced. Tenant should not pay for any of it. It is the cost of screening for tenants. Tenants commonly apply for several places during their search. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Top 12 Tips for Success. Free eBook from BiggerPockets!
Click Here to Download the eBook Now! December 14, December 14, 2. December 12, 6. Nick Johnson on December 9, As always, Brandon, thanks for this and I will surely be using your tips some day soon. Brandon Turner on December 9, 2: It seriously works so well. It has been a lifesaver for me, time and time again! Jarred on December 10, 6: Brandon, How would this work in a situation where the business entity has your name in it? Great tips here -Jarred Reply Report comment. Brandon Turner on December 17, 8: Katie Rogers on July 24, 2: Elaine Ericson on June 16, Dan Heuschele on August 3, Jeff Brown on December 9, Dennis on December 9, 3: Joshua Dorkin on December 9, 3: Mary Hammett on December 10, 4: Greg Turnquist on December 11, 9: Sharon Vornholt on December 12, 6: Dennis with no last name- That is the most absurd comment I have ever heard.
Shaun on December 15, 2: Irving on February 21, 4: Um, excuse me, Dennis, What you just said is putridly indicative of the kind of illegal discrimination that gets us in trouble and makes it unduly difficult for perfectly acceptable tenants, who happen to be single women, to find suitable housing. Kingsley Henry-Chow on April 23, 2: Larry Weingarten on December 9, 4: Good post on a potentially difficult topic!
Brandon Turner on December 9, Sumatra Chuedalounkhone on February 21, 4: Hello Larry, I think you have a point with the statement about how tenants can be like children. Katie Rogers on September 19, 4: Darryl Lee on August 4, Esther Owen on December 10, 2: Spot on, practical advice. Brandon Turner on December 10, Feel free to share it! JoshuaMacias on December 10, 5: Joshua Macias Reply Report comment. Hey Joshua, Very cool! Which was the one you are gonna work on? JoshuaMacias on December 11, 6: Good stuff thanks Reply Report comment.
Good luck and hopefully it helps a lot! Alex on December 10, 6: Thanks, Alex Reply Report comment. Jose Gonzalez on December 10, 7: Brandon Turner on December 10, 1: Bryan Jaskolka on December 10, 1: The same is true for me, Bryan. Ian on December 10, Good luck Reply Report comment. Brandon Turner on December 12, 6: Jose Gonzalez on December 11, 7: Jose Reply Report comment.
Thanks for the comment and keep in touch! I have laminate in most places. Much better than carpet. Jose Gonzalez on December 17, Sharon Vornholt on December 12, 1: Sharon Reply Report comment.
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Hey Sharon, did you learn that from Mike Butler? Thanks for commenting, Sharon and adding your advice! Brandon Turner on December 17, 6: Katie Rogers on July 24, 3: Tracey on December 13, 1: Tracey Reply Report comment. Bob Hucker on February 13, 9: Marie Smyth on December 13, 5: Jason Lam on December 17, 7: Great article as always I am learning so much! Jose Gonzalez on December 18, 3: Good point… I would like a comment from you Brandon if you dont mind of how I decided to go with mine… What I did is what my lawyer adviced me to.. If you have bad conditions in your apartment, always ask other tenants in your building if they have problems similar to yours.
If other tenants in your building are also victims of landlord negligence, consider hiring an attorney to represent you as a group, acting in unison. If you allow conditions to deteriorate, you expose yourself to more financial and emotional strain that ultimately wears you down, and makes you a victim. As the situation worsens, the costs of correcting it increases for the landlord. If you or your attorney can prove retaliation, you can beat the eviction. You can delay eviction, for sometimes as much as a year. Here are a couple of ways to try. When you are first summoned to court, the law allows you to adjourn or postpone that appearance date to give you time to hire an attorney.
Once you have an attorney, you can adjourn the next court date so that your attorney has time to prepare your case. These two adjournments can easily delay your hearing by a month and a half. Next there has to be a trial, and after that the issuance of a judgment, or decision against you. All of this takes additional time. If you lose at trial in a holdover proceeding, the Court has authority to postpone your eviction for up to six months. A "holdover proceeding" is a case in which the landlord sues for possession of the apartment, as opposed to "non-payment" of rent.
For example, the landlord may petition the Court to evict you so that the apartment can be given to a family member, or be made available for his or her own personal use. As a practical matter, the Court will usually give you at least a month or two to move, but your attorney can sometimes make this plea: My client still has nowhere to go, and is paying rent to the landlord. May we have another two months please? The Judge stayed the nonpayment proceeding until a guardian of her property was appointed. The guardian then transferred ownership of a house the client owned to her daughter, so that the daughter could mortgage it and pay the rent arrears.
There are five offices in the City: Ask specifically for a "certified rent history printout from to the present. The law requires an initial rent registration for every rent-stabilized apartment, and it has to be renewed annually. Carefully examine the sequence of registrations. The landlord is not supposed to raise the rent above the previous legally registered rent. However, recent changes allow landlords to register retroactively, if the missing registration is exactly the amount provided for in the annual guidelines.
Every year you should receive notification of the annual registration by mail. Keep all of them. As already mentioned, landlords have the right to raise rents on vacant rent-stabilized apartments, and charge additional increases for making improvements, within certain guidelines. However, at times they overstate the value of improvements to escape regulation requirements. You can sue to have your rent adjusted to the legal rate, and regain rent-stabilized status. If you lose though, be aware that your landlord is unlikely to give you a renewal lease, and is not obligated to renew leases in unregulated apartments.
Of course, if you can prove retaliation as indicated previously, you may have a defense. In this way, landlords end up with a free market apartments and tenants, and are no longer restricted by rent stabilization regulations. And yes, they can get away with it. The result is that the number of rent-stabilized apartments in NYC is quickly plummeting, as an ever-increasing number of units become destabilized.
For decades, the DHCR has been the target of major lobbying efforts by landlords, and became the worst forum for tenants. A landlord will sometimes create an "illusory tenancy," pretending on paper to have a legitimate tenant-of-record in a rent-stabilized apartment. The false tenant then subleases the apartment to an actual tenant at a rent above the legally permitted rate.
You may be able to sue the illusory tenant and your landlord, and acquire a lease in your name at the legal rent-stabilized rate. McAdams Law represented a client in these circumstances, and ultimately succeeded in gaining control of the apartment for him. Housing Court sells the names of all tenants who are involved in Landlord Tenant proceedings to background checking agencies.
When a prospective tenant submits a rental application for a new apartment, landlords now routinely run a background check. They avoid renting to tenants they think may be a source of legal difficulties. Although it may be unfair, blacklisting is in fact legal at the present time. There is a strategy that works around the blacklist difficulty. Your attorney can ask the Supreme Court to restrict your landlord from Housing Court, and exposing you to blacklisting. Your case can then be handled in Supreme Court. Suing a landlord must always be a very carefully considered decision these days.
Is the potential gain worth the risk of blacklisting? What are your chances of victory? McAdams Law litigated for a tenant in a luxury high-rise, who complained about defective elevators and oil spills. In retaliation, the landlord did not renew his lease. The firm raised the defense of retaliatory eviction and bought time for him to move out. In the case just mentioned, McAdams Law later discovered that the landlord had previously put the tenant on the blacklist by suing him without notification.
In this instance, had the client consulted the firm sooner, it might have been possible to negotiate with the landlord, and to have avoided the subsequent lawsuits and blacklisting. Calmly and carefully explain your circumstances. If you get overly emotional, you may lose credibility and damage your position. People tend to say and do things they later regret under the influence of strong emotion. An unscrupulous landlords wants you to be angry, upset and frightened. If your rent-stabilized or rent-controlled apartment is not your primary residence, you can lose your rights to rent-regulated status, and your landlord can evict you.
You may expose yourself to a lawsuit on the grounds that your rent-regulated apartment is not really your primary residence. Even if the claim against you is baseless, landlords sometimes take the offensive with the hope of gain.
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The law does not require you to reveal your whereabouts to your landlord, unless demanded by Court Order. Especially not your building manager or superintendent, or even neighbors, who may inadvertently tell a building employee. More likely than not it will get back to your landlord and you could end up with a legal problem. In one case, a woman lost both parents and inherited the mobile home they owned in another state. She went to see the home, and broke her hip while there.
Due to the injury, she was unable to return to her apartment in New York City for eight months. When she finally did, her landlord sued for eviction claiming that her New York City apartment was not her primary residence, even though she had lived here all her life.
The matter is still being litigated, but the moral of the story is this: If you are away from your apartment for an extended period for any reason, arrange to have your mail sent to a mail receiving service here, which can then forward it to you privately. If necessary, have a relative or friend look in on anything that needs checking in your apartment. McAdams Law took over a case in which a woman lived with her elderly, non-English speaking parents and brother.
They agreed to move out of their apartment, without any financial incentive. What the previous firm did not realize was that the family had rent stabilized rights. As a general rule, rent stabilization laws govern in buildings with six or more units, built prior to In this instance, there were multiple single-room occupancy "SRO" renters in the building. Even though there was a prior written agreement negotiated by her former attorney, which would otherwise have been exceedingly difficult to break, McAdams Law petitioned the Court to override it, due to the unknown rent-stabilized rights.
The result was winning a six-month extension for the woman and her family to find a new home, a waiver of rent, and a significant buyout payment. So although she agreed to move out and find another place with her family, she now had time and money to do it comfortably. The deal you make with your existing landlord today may be attacked by your new landlord tomorrow.
Most leases have a clause that says they can only be modified or amended in writing. If your building is sold to another landlord, he or she may attempt to gain control of your apartment if the agreement you made with the former owner is unenforceable. In a case currently in litigation that another firm has consulted McAdams Law on, a tenant made a deal with his landlord to pay the past due rent owed by another tenant, in order to get a rent-stabilized apartment.
The tenant is now in court defending his right to stay. In New York State, tenants have a right to sublease their apartments. The landlord is not allowed to refuse permission "unreasonably," but the method of getting permission is tightly regulated. If you do not carefully follow the procedures for obtaining permission to sublet, your landlord may sue you for violating a substantial obligation of your lease. The rent stabilization law also gives landlords the right to collect a vacancy rent increase during the term of the sublet.
For the subtenant, the original leaseholder is called the over-tenant. Like several clients McAdams Law represented, you may wake up one day to find an eviction notice taped to your door, and be in a crisis. However, this will make you a co-tenant, not a subtenant, and has certain implications. First, the primary tenant may not agree to this arrangement. But if the over-tenant or you are sued in Housing Court, this may be the deciding factor in whether you are able to stay in the apartment.
Secondly, when you leave be sure to get your name off the lease, before vacating. There are times when a landlord will agree to pay a rent-regulated tenant to move. Recently, tenants have come to Housing Court with written agreements specifying that their landlords would pay them money to move out. And there was no legal way for them to get back their apartments. The key to protecting your rights in buyout transactions is to make sure that the promises are enforceable.
That can only be done with a properly drafted legal agreement. McAdams Law requires landlords to place buyout money in escrow, to protect tenant interests and insure they are paid. This effectively takes the funds out of landlord hands, and safely delivers them to tenants when they move out. Often deals are structured so that tenant simply shows a signed lease offer beforehand, to get that part of the proceeds released before they move out. If your landlord is making it worth your while, and you want to move anyway, it can be a lucrative transaction for you.
In one buyout case the firm handled, the tenant wanted to move to Long Island, and used the buyout money as a down payment on a house. A buyout can help you purchase your own home. Your goal in any conflict about conditions in your apartment is to have them restored to what they should be, and be compensated for the reduced value of your apartment while they exist. Your landlord may delay repairs, and you might have to sue to get them. In the absence of getting specific permission, if your landlord still fails to make the repairs after repeated written requests, give written notice that you will make them yourself.
As a compromise or fall-back position, your attorney can ask for only the difference between the total cost of repairs and what your policy has already paid. Since the landlord is not being asked for the full cost, it makes his or her position in refusing to pay appear even more unreasonable. You improve your chances of winning this way. If you live in a building that converts to a coop or condo, your neighbors gain many of the powers of a landlord. That can change the nature of your relationship with them.
For example, if you are a non-purchasing tenant in a non-eviction conversion plan, when the coop needs money your neighbors may attempt to evict you. If they succeed, they can sell your apartment to raise cash. Formerly friendly neighbors can turn against you when their financial interests are at stake. McAdams Law went to trial for a woman in just these circumstances. She was never given the chance to buy in when the building went coop under an eviction plan.
This violated several requirements and laws. Still, the coop claimed she was no longer a rent-stabilized tenant, and they could terminate her tenancy at the end of her lease. The firm defeated the coop in two eviction attempts. Her neighbors then initiated a third action, which was settled by negotiating for her to buy the apartment at a discounted price. So her neighbors caused her to lose her tenancy, and the only way for her to hold onto the apartment was to buy it, requiring a major financial commitment.
If your building has not yet converted to a coop or condo, it may be wise to assume that someday it will, and to start setting aside money now for a down payment. You may then be able to purchase at a below-market rate, and become a property owner who enjoys appreciation and tax advantages. An experienced attorney can advise you on structuring the deal, which may be possible even if you have only a small down payment saved.
In most cases, to inherit a rent-regulated apartment from a relative who dies or leaves for any other reason, you must be living there with the person as a family for at least two years. And you must be able to prove it. Keep a file of all these records. If your relationship to the named tenant is not a traditional family relationship, you can still prove you had an alternative family-type relationship.