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One way tenants may steal electricity is by stealing from the building supply. Tenants may tamper with wiring and hook up directly to your building's metered electricity supply. A tenant who does this taps into power that you're paying for. Another way to steal electricity is directly from other tenants. In this case, a tenant may tap into a neighboring tenant's metered electricity supply. While this type of tampering may not happen often at your building, i...

In the past few years, we have seen an incredible rise in bedbug infestations in New York City. While reports of infestations might have ticked down this past winter, experts say that bedbugs will be present in record numbers in a few months, says Jeffrey White, a research entomologist for Bedbugcentral.com. This is because bedbugs peak in the heat of summer. In the winter, they typically slow down and hibernate....

This winter New York City has experienced record-breaking snowfall. With the latest snowstorm at the end of January, the city received about 19 inches of snow in what has become the snowiest January in more than a century of record keeping. The average winter in New York City brings 21 inches of snow; this winter there has been more than 50 inches. The abundance of snow has already caused the city to go over-budget on snow removal with nearly a month of winter yet to go.

If you make improvements to a rent-regulated apartment or you make a building-wide major capital improvement (MCI) to a property, you may be entitled to a rent increase. The amount of an “individual apartment improvement” rent increase is equal to 1/40th of an improvement's cost.

If you are hit with a rent overcharge complaint from a rent-stabilized tenant and think the tenant may have a good case, consider trying to settle the case with the tenant before the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) decides it. Settling the complaint has certain advantages—you can save time and money, and avoid worrying over an uncertain result.

When the tenant of a rent-regulated apartment dies and there is no relative living in the apartment who claims to have “pass-on” rights, an owner is still left with a number of legal complications before the apartment can be recovered.

Suppose you find out that an elderly tenant has moved to a nursing home or senior citizens' facility. But the tenant has not given up his rent-regulated apartment in your building. Perhaps the tenant—or his family—doesn't want to face up to the fact that he'll never be able to return to his apartment.

On Oct. 22, 2009, New York State's highest court dealt a devastating blow to the owners of the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complexes in Manhattan when it ruled that they improperly began charging market rents on thousands of apartments. In a 4-to-2 decision, the court said that the owners improperly raised rents beyond certain set levels at the complexes while receiving tax breaks from the city for major renovations.

As winter approaches, heat and hot water complaints probably will be the most common type of service complaint you will face. A tenant may complain to the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) of a problem in his apartment. Or a group of tenants may organize and file a building-wide complaint with the DHCR.

After last year's two unfortunate crane accidents, the New York City's Department of Buildings (DOB) is making increased efforts to better manage its resources and increase the supervision of its inspectors. Now, the DOB has begun a program in which all of the DOB's crane and elevator inspectors are tracked using GPS technology in their department-issued cell phones.