I live in midtown west in NYC with two roommates. We pay $3200/mo rent, we got this place in March of 2009. It is not a rent controlled apartment and we were very aware of the possible raise in rent at renewal.
In February of 2010 the renewal for our lease came, we decided to extend our lease, the price stayed the same, which was great. We extended the lease until August of 2010 because one of our roommates had to move out at the end of August 2010. She got off the lease and the agreement with the leasing company was that the other two will remain on the lease and renew it upon her departure.
Here is the not so fun part. The manager for our building is very disorganized and incompetent. He never gets back to his tenants when we have questions or concerns, even things regarding lease, move-in, move-out, etc. When our old roommate left she had a very hard time getting in contact with him to sort out the paper work. It came to a point where she had to contact the management company to get things going, and as soon as she did that he contacted her and was very angry with her, that, "she went behind his back and got him in trouble." When he does talk to us he never fails to tell us that he is getting a lot of heat from the company to let us stay for the price we are paying. That, it's only by the grace of the goodness of his heart that we have a roof over our heads.
Also the leasing company get annoyed very easily when contacted, as we have learned from the experience last summer when helping our old roommate move out and sort out documents. We were referred back to our manager and of course he doesn't respond... so it was a vicious cycle.
Anyway, when our old roommate left, we tried to renew the lease however he never got back to us. We attempted several times. We emailed him, called him, left him messages, you name it. We wanted to renew our lease and sign an official document saying that we were a lease holder. We were ready for rent hike because we knew that it was coming. During all these attempts to talk to him, he only replied once, saying, he will call us. That call never came. We sent another email saying, we need to talk to him and sign a new lease. NOTHING. So automatically they put us on month to month lease. We payed our rent (always on time), the price stayed the same, great... but we were still weary that we don't have an official lease.
On the evening of February 28th, he called us and told us that we can either renew our lease with a new monthly rent of $4000 or leave by the end of March. This came out of the blue. Here is what angers me, $4000 means $800 hike from our $3200, that is 25% hike. That is no easy money. He knows we are young professionals/grad students. We don't have that kind of money flowing in. We were prepared for the rent to go up, of course, but not by $800. Also, we wanted to sign a new lease back in August of 2010 to secure a reasonable rent price but he never got back to us, and now for him to spring this up on us seems quite unfair. It's clear that his ultimate goal is to kick us out, because he knows $4000 is a steep price to pay.
The worst part is of course that now we cannot get in touch with him to have a decent talk and figure things out. He never returns any of our calls, he does not respond to our emails. We might have to contact the management company (though according to him us talking to the management company only makes things worse because they are unhappy with him letting us stay for so cheap and will definitely raise the price to more than $4000 that he suggested-out of the goodness of his heart)
I am just angry that now I am apartment hunting, AGAIN... This is one more stress added to my already busy life. I am currently studying for medical school entrance exam while managing an active medical research (which is very stressful and has strenuous hours). My roommates are also students and work at the same time.
I love our apartment, the location, and the convenience to get to work and school is almost unmatchable. It is our home.
I think he seems to think that if he ignores his tenants and their problems or concerns it will go away and then he can do whatever he wants later.
Adding to this already stressful situation, this morning he tried to pull another one us. As my roommate and I were walking about of the building to go to work (this was around 8:30AM), the super of the building was cleaning something in the lobby. He approached us and said, "_____ told me you guys were moving out. He wanted me to show some people you apartment today at 10AM, is that okay with you guys." The answer was of course, NO.
1) His 30 day notice was only over the short phone conversation, we never received anything in writing. For all he knows we do not agree on moving out, we could pay the demanded (ridiculous) price ... though to be honest we won't. I would at least like to have a decent talk with him in person to negotiate.
2) He can't just have people coming into our apartment. I know that by law he is required to give us at least a 24 hour notice.
So what are our rights as tenants? We have been nothing but model tenants. We always paid our rent on time, we never complained about the small things around the apartment that needed fixing (took care of them ourselves), very clean, always available to communicate etc.
Please help. Any advice would be appreciated.
In February of 2010 the renewal for our lease came, we decided to extend our lease, the price stayed the same, which was great. We extended the lease until August of 2010 because one of our roommates had to move out at the end of August 2010. She got off the lease and the agreement with the leasing company was that the other two will remain on the lease and renew it upon her departure.
Here is the not so fun part. The manager for our building is very disorganized and incompetent. He never gets back to his tenants when we have questions or concerns, even things regarding lease, move-in, move-out, etc. When our old roommate left she had a very hard time getting in contact with him to sort out the paper work. It came to a point where she had to contact the management company to get things going, and as soon as she did that he contacted her and was very angry with her, that, "she went behind his back and got him in trouble." When he does talk to us he never fails to tell us that he is getting a lot of heat from the company to let us stay for the price we are paying. That, it's only by the grace of the goodness of his heart that we have a roof over our heads.
Also the leasing company get annoyed very easily when contacted, as we have learned from the experience last summer when helping our old roommate move out and sort out documents. We were referred back to our manager and of course he doesn't respond... so it was a vicious cycle.
Anyway, when our old roommate left, we tried to renew the lease however he never got back to us. We attempted several times. We emailed him, called him, left him messages, you name it. We wanted to renew our lease and sign an official document saying that we were a lease holder. We were ready for rent hike because we knew that it was coming. During all these attempts to talk to him, he only replied once, saying, he will call us. That call never came. We sent another email saying, we need to talk to him and sign a new lease. NOTHING. So automatically they put us on month to month lease. We payed our rent (always on time), the price stayed the same, great... but we were still weary that we don't have an official lease.
On the evening of February 28th, he called us and told us that we can either renew our lease with a new monthly rent of $4000 or leave by the end of March. This came out of the blue. Here is what angers me, $4000 means $800 hike from our $3200, that is 25% hike. That is no easy money. He knows we are young professionals/grad students. We don't have that kind of money flowing in. We were prepared for the rent to go up, of course, but not by $800. Also, we wanted to sign a new lease back in August of 2010 to secure a reasonable rent price but he never got back to us, and now for him to spring this up on us seems quite unfair. It's clear that his ultimate goal is to kick us out, because he knows $4000 is a steep price to pay.
The worst part is of course that now we cannot get in touch with him to have a decent talk and figure things out. He never returns any of our calls, he does not respond to our emails. We might have to contact the management company (though according to him us talking to the management company only makes things worse because they are unhappy with him letting us stay for so cheap and will definitely raise the price to more than $4000 that he suggested-out of the goodness of his heart)
I am just angry that now I am apartment hunting, AGAIN... This is one more stress added to my already busy life. I am currently studying for medical school entrance exam while managing an active medical research (which is very stressful and has strenuous hours). My roommates are also students and work at the same time.
I love our apartment, the location, and the convenience to get to work and school is almost unmatchable. It is our home.
I think he seems to think that if he ignores his tenants and their problems or concerns it will go away and then he can do whatever he wants later.
Adding to this already stressful situation, this morning he tried to pull another one us. As my roommate and I were walking about of the building to go to work (this was around 8:30AM), the super of the building was cleaning something in the lobby. He approached us and said, "_____ told me you guys were moving out. He wanted me to show some people you apartment today at 10AM, is that okay with you guys." The answer was of course, NO.
1) His 30 day notice was only over the short phone conversation, we never received anything in writing. For all he knows we do not agree on moving out, we could pay the demanded (ridiculous) price ... though to be honest we won't. I would at least like to have a decent talk with him in person to negotiate.
2) He can't just have people coming into our apartment. I know that by law he is required to give us at least a 24 hour notice.
So what are our rights as tenants? We have been nothing but model tenants. We always paid our rent on time, we never complained about the small things around the apartment that needed fixing (took care of them ourselves), very clean, always available to communicate etc.
Please help. Any advice would be appreciated.
