HELP: 3 year tenant never on lease

[nicolehagan]

i have lived in the same 2BR apt for almost 3 years, and am being forced to pay my SECOND 20% increase. reason being: landlord wouldn't agree to put me on the lease in the past. he knows that any time there is a tenant rollover, he can forego the 4-6% increase and can jack up the rent by 20%. now that my roommate is leaving, he has finally agreed to put me on, but for a pretty 20% more.
do i have any rights here?

[bklynangel]

How many people live in the 2BR apartment? Everytime you get a new roommate, he puts the new person on the lease and not you? I can help you but I need to know who is on the lease and how many perople live there. Also, very important, are you rent stabilized? How many apts in your building? Your landlord may be screwing you - most likely is.

[nicolehagan]

thanks for the response.
first off, YES this is rent stab, and YES this is a 2 BR apt and always 2 people have been living there.
my 1st year: i moved in since my first roommate had broken up w/ her live-in boyfriend. both were on the lease. when i came into the apt, it was a new lease, and the LL refused to put me on the lease, so my roommate was the only one on.
my 2nd year: my roommate was moving out and her brother was replacing her. again, new lease. however, the LL put only her brother on the lease and again REFUSED to put me on. this was the first 20% increase in rent (since the tenant on the lease was completely rolled over).
my 3rd year (now): now the brother has decided to leave, and finally the LL is agreeing to put me on the lease--however with ANOTHER 20% increase!!!
my LL is very smart, but doing shady things here. he accepted rent checks from me my 1st year there. i just don't know if what he's doing is illegal or not, and if i have any rights.

<small>[ March 28, 2003, 10:51 AM: Message edited by: mattythecatty ]</small>

[TenantNet]

In general for RS units, a LL is REQUIRED to put spouses on leases, but not roommates. However the prime tenant (the one on the lease) has a right to have roommates, so it's only a question of your tenancy status, not your living there. The prime tenant would control whether or not you can live there. Say you have two roommates both on a lease. One leaves and is replaced by a roommate not on the lease. The LL MAY (not required) to put the new roommate on the lease if asked. However a new person on the lease (not a spouse) would trigger a vacancy lease for the unit (20% increase). If the prime tenant has a roommate but the roomate is not on the lease, that does not trigger a vacancy lease. Or if two roomates on the lease, one leaves and is not replaced, the remaining tenant can have the person who left removed from the lease, but that also does not trigger a vacancy lease.

Make sense? This may be swarmy, but from your description it may be legal. There can be only one increase per year no matter how many vacancies occur.

Also consider that if the LL took your rent money the first year, you may have acquired legal tenancy status, so you could challenge the lease and the increases. That gets complicated and you probably should get a legal opinion.