Supt. and Porter renting parking spots in the garage.

[lawful tenant]

The building superintendent was renting parking spots for $100-$125 a month for more than 10 years. He was pocketing this money.

Is this in and of itself enough to have him fired?
Also, the porter has been renting the spot assigned to him for at least 5 years. Is this a fireable offense?

When confronted by the managing agent he turned red and responded that he cannot control and/or prevent tenants from subleasing to each other. This obviously was not true. Shockingly, it appears that the managing agent might have believed this.

There are a total of 31 spots in the garage. The managing agent claimed that only 21 are registered as paying for their spots. That leaves 10 spots.
1 is used by the super.
1 allowed to porter? Is this really allowed. Does he get it for free? And if so, can he rent it to someone else if he does not own a car?
That leaves 8 more spots that the super is getting paid directly in his pocket.

A fellow tenant called and asked the managing agent for a spot. The agent initially told him of the current situation and said that he would have to wait a few months. The tenant explained to the agent that he is aware of people who are parking in the garage (some of whom do not even live in the building) and pay directly to the super. At this point the agent said he would get back to him by the end of the month. When the tenant called back yesterday, he was told that there is a spot but the price is $220, which he said is the current market rate. He went on to say that if no one would pay this amount for the few spots that are available that they would lower the amount to $190 and continue lowering it until there are takers.

IS THIS EVEN LEGAL?
I was able to find out through a previous managing agent that the highest price paid 1 year ago was $140 plus tax.
That coupled with the fact that 8 people are paying the supt $100-$125 is this not gouging for the managing agent to try to rent a spot for $225 ($85 more than the highest price being paid). Are there any laws or case law that would prevent the managing agent from doing this?

Also, what would be the reaction of the OWNER if I were to contact him and say that the supt. has stolen tens of thousands of dollars through the years by directly renting the spots and pocketing the money?
And that the managing agent is aware of this but not doing anything (or at least not doing it fast enough) to resolve this issue?
It has now been 2 months since the managing agent found out about this and there is still at least 6 cars in the garage that shouldn't be there. Shouldn't he have ordered the super to IMMEDIATELY remove all the cars that are not paying to the managing agent?

Thank you

[ronin]

This is a strange post. You assume the owner doesn't know about it. If contacted he might just say, "Yeah, that's why the super works another building for me." or something. Unless the parking spot was in a rent regulated building and part of the original lease, there is really nothing a tenant can complain about.

[MikeW]

As a tenant, you have no real standing to do anything about this. You can inform the LL, and he can chose to do something, or not.

[CityWifi]

I don't doubt anyone who says you have no standing here. I'm not an expert on that.

But you can make this guy's life hell, and leverage the situation to obtain your own parking space -- maybe even for free.

I would first somehow carefully and quietly document the fact that 1] non-residents are parking there; 2] they are paying cash to the super, and he is accepting it.

You can do this by making a daily photographic journal of cars and license plates (it need not take much time to do each day); and by surreptitiously recording both the car owners and the super verbally admitting to what they're doing. None of this is illegal (though the question is, would a court or agency accept this as evidence or not).

When you have everything in apple-pie order, and the documentation is unimpeachable (this is known as "taking dead aim"), start asking the super if he's paying taxes on the monthly cash income he's receiving from this scam. Do it with a smile. Find a legal way of re-phrasing this idea: "I could easily report you to the IRS for this, and I have compelling evidence to support my allegations. Please assign me my parking spot in no less than 48 hours" or something to that effect.

What I would ultimately want, is something in writing that officially assigns a specific parking spot to me at no additional charge (as part of the rent I pay), as long as I live in the building. (But I'd settle just for getting a spot.) This is a long shot, I know, because the super cannot give you anything in writing -- it would have to come from the owner. But there may be ways to motivate the owner to give this to you (such as keeping his name and face out of the newspapers).

Sometimes you have to be a high-riding bitch to survive. Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold onto. -- Vera Donovan, "Dolores Claiborne" (1985)

Get the picture?