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Handwritten additions to lease.

NYC Rent Regulation: Rent Control/Rent Stabilized, DHCR Practice/Procedures

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Handwritten additions to lease.

Postby lawful tenant » Fri Nov 25, 2022 5:28 am

Posting for a friend:

Can he hand write his son's name to the renewal lease where only his name appears?

As I understand it leases are superfluous documents and if something were to happen to him, his son would inherit the apartment regardless, however he is concerned that he would not be able to have more than 1 roommate, since the law says the number of roommates you have has to be equal to the number of people named in the lease. Is this correct?

If he were to hand write his son's name to the renewal lease, and the landlord signs this lease and returns to him, will it stand up in court, if need be?

Thank you
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Re: Handwritten additions to lease.

Postby TenantNet » Fri Nov 25, 2022 6:22 am

My understanding is that leases may be amended if agreed to by all parties, landlord and tenant. If just one party writes something, it's not a legal change. In this case the landlord, current tenant (father) and the new additional tenant (son) would all have to agree. It should be initialed by all parties and a side letter should be issued (and signed by all) that memorializes the change. What is being suggested is a change to a contract and it can't be one-sided. Having an attorney prepare and sign the documents would be the best way to proceed.

Adding someone to a lease might provide for succession (I know of no LL that would agree to that), but it also creates other issues, such as liability for the tenant and obligations for the LL. This is not something one should undertake without understanding all consequences.

As for succession, that applies to RS tenancies and can get complicated, as I'm sure you know. Those who succeed must be a qualified relation (sons and daughters are OK). They must have lived with the vacating tenant for 2 years prior (one year if over 62 or disabled).

You can't just assume the son would get the apartment automatically. LLs have ways of coming up with reasons to oppose successions. I'd read up on DHCR succession policy and how to proceed.

Leases are not superfluous. They include many provisions that are needed for a contract. You can't just ignore them.

Roommates are something else entirely. Having an additional tenant on the lease should not limit the ability to have roommates.
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Re: Handwritten additions to lease.

Postby lawful tenant » Fri Nov 25, 2022 7:37 am

What about the following taken from this website: https://www.metcouncilonhousing.org/hel ... -roommate/

Do I have the right to have a roommate?
If you live in a privately owned building, and

If you are the only person who signed your lease (for rent control: if you are the only tenant of record),

Then you have the right to share your apartment with one other adult not related to you, and that person’s dependent children.

You do not have a right to a roommate if:

you live in public housing or most subsidized housing, or
if two or more people have signed the lease, and your lease does not expressly give you permission to live with an additional person.

Also, is a person obligated to provide LL with Social Security numbers of people being added to the lease?
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Re: Handwritten additions to lease.

Postby TenantNet » Fri Nov 25, 2022 8:03 am

There are many variations and court cases on the roommate issue. Plus the Housing Maintenance Code limits how many can live in a unit or room, but that's for safety and occupancy reasons.

The Roommate Law is part of Real Property Law and not part of Rent Stabilization. As I said, roommates and succession sort of operate independently.

Roommates also can impact situations where household income must be reported, i.e., with SCRIE.

On this forum, in the reference section (see link at the top), I'm sure there are threads on roommate issues. But understand, all of this really depends on the individual facts and what mood a judge is in.

I'm not sure about the line you underlined. My understanding is that if there two lease holders, i.e., two unrelated people on the lease (i.e., college roommates) or a married couple, for example, then they have a right to have two roommates. That does not include the offspring of the prime tenants or offspring of the roommates.

As for SS numbers, we don't think so, but the reality is the LL might not allow the person in without that information. On a renewal, NEVER give the LL your SS number.

Some of this gets ridiculous and we've had questions over the years. What if there is one person on the lease, but there are 3 or 4 bedrooms? Why would they not be allowed to fill up those bedrooms with one person each? Some of it just doesn't make sense.
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