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building sold/expired lease - seeking help

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building sold/expired lease - seeking help

Postby anza808 » Sun Aug 14, 2016 10:26 am

Greetings,

We are trying to prepare for the worst after learning our apartment was sold to new owners (a mega realty co. with questionable past behavior. We do not currently have a lease. Building is 11 units, 7 of which are RS and 4 market-rate (including ours). Details below:

+April 1 2015: We moved into apartment with a 1-year lease.

+January 2016: We asked for a lease renewal for April. We were told they were working on it and would be back in touch. We never received a new lease, but continued paying our current rent amount from April until now.

+Between March 2016 and and July 2016, we received 3 requests for access to the apartment for inspections. We were present during the third and were told they were appraising apartments in order to re-finance the building (this was clearly a lie).

+Early August 2016: We received a letter informing the building had been sold.

We've been told to immediately direct rent payments to new owners and have been given some new paperwork to fill out, including a W9 which is presumably for security deposit.

My chief concern is that new owners will force us to re-negotiate new lease that would start in September (highly competitive time of year) vs. April and at much higher rate.

Is there any other option? Any way to get retroactive lease from previous owner before it is too late? Does our attempt to get a new lease and their response/stalling count for anything?

Any advice/perspective is greatly appreciated.
anza808
 
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Re: building sold/expired lease - seeking help

Postby TenantNet » Sun Aug 14, 2016 11:06 am

First, I would look carefully to see if the unit should be rent stabilized despite what the LL says. RS status - or even a claim that you file alleging RS status - could put off a court decision (if it comes to that) - until the status is resolved.

But based on the above, it appears you are month-to-month tenants without a lease, but the LL has accepted your old rent for a while now. If they want you out, they have to give you 30 days written notice. If you got a notice today (Aug. 14), it would not be effective until Oct. 1st.

After that date the LL can commence a no-lease holdover to get you out. Eventually he would be able to do so.

There are always exceptions, which is why tenants are always good to get consultations with tenant attorneys, and assuming the tenant disclose everything they have on the building and their rental.

The problem with paying the new owner is that some times it's bogus and the old owner comes back and demands payment that you've sent to the supposed new owner. I would get a release from the old owner first.

As for a new lease, there's not much you can do on that. If indeed you are not regulated, then you are at the mercy of the owner. You can ask for a retroactive lease, but then you might be responsible for any increases going back to April.
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Re: building sold/expired lease - seeking help

Postby anza808 » Sun Aug 14, 2016 11:24 am

*edited to redact some personal info*

Re: status of RS, thanks for flagging. I contacted DHCR late last week to request registration/rental history. I sent you some private messages regarding this as it's a very unique situation. The unit was previously owner occupied for nearly a century until he passed away - there are some discrepancies in the deregulation paperwork we received, but seems likely they would have a legitimate path to dereg under those circumstances.
Last edited by anza808 on Sun Aug 14, 2016 1:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: building sold/expired lease - seeking help

Postby TenantNet » Sun Aug 14, 2016 12:19 pm

Get a smartphone and record the conversation. These days phones do a pretty good job at that. You can do it surreptitiously and that's entirely legal if the LL rep doesn't know. In NYS only one party has to consent to be recorder. Some phones will go black and still be recording. Test it first.

From now on document everything. Send everything certified or certificate of mailing. Keep envelopes (for the postmarks).

See the section on M2M tenants in the forum reference section. A 30-day notice today will be good on the first rent payment date following the 30 days .... Oct 1.

I think it's OK to just put in the months. Understand the new LL should have gotten all leases from the old LL. It's called due diligence.

LL claims dereg due to owner occupancy (i.e., a permanent exemption), but I have heard different opinions on that. But also the owner claims high-rent dereg. That are several exemptions to that (See the Grimm and Altman cases to start). I would also look for evidence of J-51 or 421-a abatements; that can impact things.
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