Apartment Leak

lincolnannex

It has been one hell of a month for me here in PH - my car was struck and totaled on the street and now, my apartment is leaking.
So heres the rundown. I am on the third floor of a four floor walk up building. The fourth floor apartment directly above us is currently unoccupied. The water is cascading down two walls, raining down in my closet (adjacent to cascading wall) and pouring out of our light socket and a few other places in my living room. I had just got home from work when i noticed it - ruined our living room rug and nearly destroyed my girfriend's art porfolio.
Sadly, this is not a first. In fact this is the third time since February this has happened. The last time we were told the leak was due to a pitch in our roof which was supposedly fixed over the summer.
So what i am trying to ask in a dramatically round-about way is what are my rights here as a tennant? We have been in this space for one year now, and our lease is due to expire on December 31st. There have been no discussions between the landlord and ourselves about a lease renewal - and now i'm afraid they might kick us out to fix the problem since no one is above us either. In all honesty we cannot afford a move right now and do love the building and neighborhood - its just this leak business is a major headache and disruption.

If you can offer any bits of wisdom, please do pass it along.

Thanks so much.

joseph11

sounds like the owner is trying to flood you and the rest of the tenants out of the building. Is there rent controlled apts in the building? Sounds like your gonna need some legal help. Good Luck and don't give in.

lincolnannex

the apartment is indeed rent controlled - so my fear IS that they are trying to force us out.

apollonia666

LincolnAnnex wrote: the apartment is indeed rent controlled - so my fear IS that they are trying to force us out.

Are you sure it's rent controlled and not rent stabilized? There are very few rent controlled apartments left in the city and they're damn near impossible to get into. And there are different rules for each.

You might be able to find some of the info you need at the Rent Guidelines Board website:
http://www.housingnyc.com/

I'm not a lawyer, but my personal advice would be to get that lease renewed ASAP and have it in your hands before you start going after them for the leaks.

lydiabrunch

Yeah, if you've only been there a year, it's almost certainly rent stabilized (unless you "inherited" it from a relative you lived with.)

These folks, the City-Wide Task Force on Housing, can give you a lot of helpful info:

http://www.cwtfhc.org/

Basically you have two choices (I'm assuming you're stabilized, not sure if a rent control situation would change anything):

a) Withhold rent, which gives the landlord the right to take you to court for the rent. At that point you can ask for an abatement for having lived without the repairs for a x amount of time. Advantages: you don't really have to do anything except withhold rent. Disadvantage: The court case happens on the landlord's timeline, and there is always the possibility that the court will find in the landlord's favor (though in this case that seems unlikely.) Caution: when the case settles out you'll need to pay up within five days, so don't screw around - put your rent money away somewhere.

b) File a housing action against the landlord. Advantage: this automatically involves HPD (Housing Preservation and Development), who don't represent you but have interests aligned with you and thus can be helpful. (Basically, when you file an action against the landlord of a rent-stabilized apartment, you are also filing against HPD. You would think this would make them your enemy, but it doesn't - they want the stuff fixed too.) Plus the case is a little bit more on your timeline (but it's not like you can pick your court dates.) You don't risk losing your apartment due to non-payment. Disadvantage: it costs $45 to file, which can be waived if you can't afford it.

The website above has a hotline to call where you can get more detailed info. The one thing I would say is, don't pursue both a and b - pick one. I did that before I knew better and just ended up in court twice as often. Not helpful.