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Lambda Legal recently filed a complaint against a New York City landlord for refusing to add a lesbian tenant's legally married wife to her rent-stabilized lease as is required by state and city law. After marrying her partner of 37 years in Iowa in 2011, the tenant provided a copy of her marriage certificate to the management company requesting to have her spouse added to the lease. In response to her request, the management company incorrectly told the couple that...

In a long-running effort to increase the rent at a Mitchell-Lama building on the Upper West Side, the owner, Trinity School, has succeeded in securing city approval to hike rents by as much as 13 percent in one year. This is more than three times the standard increase for rent-stabilized units this year. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), which regulates Mitchell-Lama buildings with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Develop...

Building Code Section 27-147 says that work permits are required for all building construction or alteration work, foundation or earthwork, demolition or removal work, or plumbing work. But it provides an exception for minor alterations and ordinary repairs.

A family is suing the owner after a kitchen fire sparked by a stove burned the family's 4-year-old girl and killed her older sister. According to court documents, two weeks before the fire, the building superintendent installed a new stove in the family’s fourth-floor apartment. According to the lawsuit, the superintendent positioned the appliance so close to the wall, it crushed the electrical cord, damaging it to the point where it ignited.

Recently, a judge ruled that tenants of a 921-unit rental building in Chelsea can proceed with a lawsuit alleging illegal rent hikes related to a tax abatement program as a class action. The case involved the same issues at the heart of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village case, where tenants claimed that then-landlords Tishman Speyer and MetLife had deregulated apartments while taking tax breaks for apartment improvements, known as the J-51 program. An appeals cour...

You may be doing renovation work in your building that may disturb lead-paint surfaces this season. Exposure to lead paint, of special concern in homes built before 1978, can cause permanent damage to the brain and nervous system, including behavior and learning problems. Young children are most susceptible.

Last year's overhaul of the federal flood insurance program, the adoption of new flood maps for high-risk areas, and the impact of Hurricane Sandy are all contributing to a substantial impact on flood insurance rates in the New York region. As a result, government officials, grass-roots organizations and building owners are mobilizing to prevent the higher premiums from taking hold.

Two Astoria landlords are fighting the city over billboards on their residential buildings, both located on the north side of Astoria Blvd. near the Grand Central Parkway. In 2011, the city presented each owner with a fine and informed them that the billboards—both of which dated to the World War II era—were out of compliance with the law. One owner was initially fined $30,000 in 2011 for the billboard. He appealed, and the fines were reduced to $800. But th...

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor for Operations Cas Holloway, and Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty recently launched the new “Recycle Everything” public information campaign to promote recycling and announce the expansion of the organic food waste recycling program. The initiatives are part of the city’s work to double the recycling rate to 30 percent by 2017 and follow the largest expansion of the recycling program in 25 years with the ...

Choosing the right tenant is one of the most important decisions an owner can make. The right tenants pay their rent on time, don’t cause any legal problems, and keep their apartments in good condition. To choose the best tenant among applicants, an owner should rely on a thorough screening process that includes checking references, verifying employment, and obtaining credit and background reports.