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SRO, No Lease, New Building Owner

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SRO, No Lease, New Building Owner

Postby kablooey » Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:42 pm

My landlord just lost the building to tax foreclosure. The building is under new ownership/management through Neighborhood Restore.

NR left a few letters addressed: "Tenant" under the building's entrance door notifying us of this change in ownership.

As far as I know I am a rent stabilized tenant in a SRO. I share a kitchen and a bath with other tenants. The Certificate of Occupancy describes my room as Class B. The Department of Buildings profile on my building state that its SRO restricted.

My questions:

I do not have a lease. I've lived here for a few years. Do I have to sign a lease?

In the letter that NR left by the door it sounds like they want a lot of information from the tenants. Drivers license, pay stubs, leases, utility bills, ect. Am I legally required to provide them with all of this information about me when I am already living here? The whole process seems a little invasive. As if I was appyling for section 8..

I always paid my rent by the week. Can I legally continue to do so?


Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Last edited by kablooey on Thu Sep 29, 2011 12:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby concord » Thu Sep 29, 2011 5:04 pm

TYPICAL SRO’s

I know nothing about ‘Neighborhood Restore’.
I do know a few things about stabilized SRO’s.

Concerning a typical rent-stabilized SRO unit in a building owned by a private landlord:

You don’t have to sign a lease; you are considered a permanent tenant after occupancy of your unit for 15 days (or maybe 30 days). As a permanent tenant you receive most protections that rent-stabilized tenants of Class ‘A’ apartments receive. Class A has its own bathroom and cooking facility whereas a Class B is missing one or both of those.

In a typical SRO you do not need to have a lease to be considered a permanent tenant (who receives all protections that a rent-stablized tenant is entitled to).

If you were rent-stabilized before the NR take-over I can’t imagine a law that would allow the new LL to change your rent-stabilized status. If it were that easy many LL’s would be doing it all of the time.

In a typical SRO a LL can not demand drivers license, pay stubs, leases, utility bills, etc. after you have become a permanent tenant. I don’t know if a LL of a Class A apt can even demand those things once the tenant has already moved in and signed the lease.

Since you (presumably) have receipts proving that you live there you should only need to present one form of ID to confirm your identity for the new LL; this sounds reasonable as the old LL may not have forwarded these records to the new LL and the new LL is entitled to know who you are. I sure wouldn’t be providing my birth certificate or Social Security Number.

If NR is not providing you with any financial assistance I suspect that they are not entitled to demand your pay stubs and utility bills. (My LL has no idea what my wages are; he doesn’t need to know and he never will know. He doesn't even know who my employer is.)

Why don’t you tell us a little more about NR in a brief summary?
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