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If you want to collect a rent hike for making improvements to, or installing new equipment in, an occupied rent-stabilized apartment, you must get the tenant’s written consent to the rent hike. If you don’t do this properly and the tenant challenges the rent hike by filing a rent overcharge complaint with the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), you could lose out on the rent hike.

By Eileen O’Toole, Esq.

Sometimes staff or neighboring tenants may complain about behavior by a tenant that poses a health or safety risk. They may say that a neighbor keeps animals that he’s unable to care for, or simply keeps too many. They may complain that a tenant allows his apartment to become so dirty and cluttered that there’s an offensive odor, vermin infestation, and serious risk of fire. Or a tenant may repeatedly harass other...

If a tenant tells you that she’s moving out before her lease ends and she stops paying rent, it usually isn’t a big deal. In the best case scenario, you’ll be able to quickly re-rent the apartment to a qualified tenant and apply the former tenant’s security deposit toward any unpaid rent. So the tenant wouldn’t be on the hook for anything.

Building owners and managers often complain about graffiti. It’s not only unsightly but can lead to other problems. It can deter people from wanting to rent at your building, lower the quality of life there, and invite additional crime. Also, if you don’t remove the graffiti within a reasonable time and tenants complain, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) could issue a building-wide rent cut based on reduced services.

When you get a major capital improvement (MCI) performed at your building, you may hire a consultant such as an engineer or architect in addition to the contractor doing the work. For example, you may hire an engineer when you get your building’s parapet replaced. Can you include the engineer’s or architect’s fees as part of the cost of the MCI when you calculate your rent increase?

As an owner or manager, you probably deal with dozens of different documents relating to rent-stabilized tenants. For example, you have leases and renewal leases to fill out and sign, apartment registrations to file with the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), and window guard and lead paint notices that you must send to tenants each year.

Suppose a tenant’s roommate asks you for a renewal lease in her own name on a rent-stabilized apartment or for the right to continue living in a rent-controlled apartment after the tenant dies or moves out. The roommate claims that she’s entitled to pass-on rights to the apartment, based on her family-type relationship with the tenant. The roommate is either unrelated to the tenant or not one of the relatives automatically considered a “family member&r...

The Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits discrimination in housing because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. In addition to having to comply with federal law, New York City’s housing discrimination law expands the FHA’s scope and offers more protected classes. The additional protected classes include age, citizenship status, sexual orientation, lawful occupation, lawful source of income (including Section 8 recipient...

On Jan. 31, Mayor Bloomberg and the Mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery Operations announced a new public-private initiative to help expand mold treatment assistance in Hurricane Sandy-affected neighborhoods. Using private money raised to assist victims of Hurricane Sandy, the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City launched a remediation program to remove mold in approximately 2,000 homes in the hardest hit areas.

Your building employees are in a perfect position to keep you up-to-date on what’s going on in your building. And the information they give you about tenants can be critical in helping you run your building. They can alert you to lease violations and unauthorized tenants, and they can help you build cases against troublesome tenants.