very tricky situation?

[platinumpusher]

Hi.

I moved into my wife's apartment one year ago in Brooklyn, the Windsor Terrace area. Her apartment is on the second of three floors. The floor above has another residential tenant, and the floor below is a small business. As far as I can tell from the DHCR website, this building is not rent stabilized or controlled.

She moved in in Feb 2007, signed a one year lease (exp Feb 2008), and the landlord still hasn't offered a lease renewal. Aside from other problems with the building (no fire escape, outside door requires a key for entry/leaving), the landlord has now decided he wants to change from oil heating to gas heating. In doing so, he wants to put a gas-powered water heater in the basement (replacing the old oil heater) and use this for hot water and radiator heat. He said he'll place thermostats on all three floors and each unit will receive a gas bill based upon their own heat/hot water usage. He stated he is doing this in lieu of raising rent.

First, I don't understand how he is going to charge separate gas bills for one heater and three units. Second, this is going to leave us without hot water for an unspecified period of time. Third, it's going to evidently require construction within our unit (and we must now take time off work to be home when construction workers are here).

Does anyone have thoughts as to our legal rights? We will be moving out of the city in one year, so we don't want to move within the city right now.

Thanks,
Matthew

[lofter1]

First, what does your lease say about work inside your unit? And about ACCESS?

You may run the risk of getting an eviction notice (you could possibly play out that legal game and stay for the upcoming year as you mention), but if you really want to avoid the work while you're living there then you might be able to delay the LL ...

BEFORE agreeing to any work (or access for same) you might start by requesting copies of all documentation -- Work Permits, etc. -- related to the "construction" the LL wants to do inside your unit.

Get a written description of EXACTLY what is planned for inside your unit and what would be required of you to accomodate that work.

Also a time frame, with a rent reduction for lack of required services.

Gas work requires a Plumbing Permit from DOB; work must be done by a LICENSED NYC plumber.

And ask for the LL's insurance information, including coverage for the workers (who should also carry insurance -- if they're not insured then that is a huge red flag).

Check with your insurance carrier to see how your current renters insurance (which if you don't have you should get ASAP) will cover you in case of problems.

You write "Thermostat on each floor". Not a separate meter for each floor? Without separate meters the gas billing would problematic and anyone's guess as to the calculation for fair share. It could be that your LL plans to bill you by his guesstimate calculations based on a "Shared Meter" (Con Ed sdoes NOT allow shared Electric meters, and this could also be true of shared Gas meters -- all units must have separate meters).

Search this forum for "Shared Meter" info.

[concord]

FIRE ESCAPE
A fire escape is not necessarily required, if the building has other means of egress that comply with Fire Department codes. Go to a local Fire Station and inquire.

KEY, TO EXIT THE BUILDING
The main entry door to the building requiring the actual insertion of a key in order to exit certainly sounds like a violation. This would be a Fire Department question also.

SEPARATE BILLING
It would not be difficult to place a separate meter in each unit in the building. However, if there is a meter on each floor only then you may run into the “guestimate” problem that lofter1 refers to. Your landlord would be foolish to place meters on each floor instead of inside each apartment.

HEAT/HOT WATER PROVIDED
You should call DHCR and ask if the landlord is required to provide your non-regulated apartment with adequate heat and hot water free of charge. Also, the conversion should not take more than one day. That is, you should be without hot water and heat for no more than a day.

All of the new infrastructure (pipes, tubing, electrical, new heating unit) shall be installed firstly over a period of time without disconnecting your current energy source. Then after all of that is in place, the last step will be to actually do the switch in the basement from oil to gas, so only one day should be required for the last step.

BOILER SUGGESTION
Advise your landlord that it would be a good idea to get a separate boiler for hot water and a separte one for heat if possible. When the sole boiler breaks down all hell breaks loose and, the landlord shall have a bunch of aggravated tenants filing complaints. (Boilers break down.)

TIME OFF - COMPENSATION
You may have a reasonable argument as to lost wages or vacation time. You may be entitled to demand that the construction work in your apartment must occur on your days off. (DHCR, SMALL CLAIMS COURT… whose jurisdiction would that one fall under?)

DELAY IT
I like lofter1’s implication of flooding your landlord with paperwork so as to delay your landlord from starting the work by the time you’ve vacated. Perhaps even verbally mentioning (to your landlord) violations that you are considering reporting before you vacate the premises on …

As an unregulated tenant however [without a renewed lease?] I don’t know what other headaches this approach may bring you.