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Person I rent a room to is demanding te mailbox key

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Person I rent a room to is demanding te mailbox key

Postby Marcus66ny » Wed Jan 19, 2022 2:27 pm

The person I rented a room to a few years ago who has not paid rent in over a year told me that he needs a mailbox key to get his mail, that based on my actions whatever that means. He said if I do not provide him with a copy of the mailbox key he will contact building management to see what they can do but I know he means "If you don't give me a key to the mailbox I'll rat you out for overcharging me rent) - Is this a form of blackmail? Isn't this illegal? If he did contact building management would they even listen to him? This is a rent controlled apartment, I pay 300 a month for - only charged him 200 a week when I could have charged him a lot more. Any advice would be appreciated, thank you.
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Re: Person I rent a room to is demanding te mailbox key

Postby BubbaJoe123 » Wed Jan 19, 2022 2:56 pm

"If he did contact building management would they even listen to him? This is a rent controlled apartment, I pay 300 a month for - only charged him 200 a week when I could have charged him a lot more. Any advice would be appreciated, thank you."

Oh, building management would DEFINITELY listen to him. You're violating the purpose of rent control, and potentially creating an avenue for the landlord to pursue an eviction (although they're by no means certain to succeed, since you could potentially cure the violation by ceasing the profiteering). For a rent-controlled apartment, you're only allowed to charge a roommate the full amount of the rent, so $300 in your case. Your roommate could file a complaint to get back the overcharge, which sounds like about $500/month ($200x4 - $300).

https://hcr.ny.gov/leases
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Re: Person I rent a room to is demanding te mailbox key

Postby TenantNet » Wed Jan 19, 2022 4:01 pm

This is a roommate, not a sublet, yes? Still, you are acting as a landlord and in general, LLs must a) provide a mailbox or b) distribute the mail to the tenant. I've seen that law many times, just don't recall right now the actual citation.

I've not seen any law that says you must share the mailbox by giving him/her a key. But to withhold any mail could get you in deep trouble.

Having said all that, from what the post states, you are RC (is that real RC or are you being loose with the terminology?) and paying $300 per month. Yet, you charge him $800/month for one room. That's profiteering and illegal, and you should return all the money he's paid you over 50% of the legal rent if it's just the two of you. (that's the law for RS).

The link from BubbaJoe states regarding RC, "In a rent controlled apartment, a roommate may not be charged an amount of rent that is in excess of the legal rent for the apartment. A roommate can submit an overcharge complaint with ORA if he or she was charged in excess of the legal rent."

If you don't do that, yes, he can file an overcharge and if the LL gets serious, you could lose the place.

Not what you want to hear, but you can get into deep problems playing this game.

Tenants that take advantage of the tenant protection laws beyond their intention put ALL tenants at risk. Best to stop this now and make good.
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