The right to know my building's emergency procedures?

[BettyKat]

This may seem like an odd question, but: Do I have the legal right to know my building's emergency procedures?

We've had a tenant harassing us for a few years (dogs barking, noises at all hours, etc.). Most recently they trespassed onto our balcony. The landlord is aware of all of this; however, they asked us not to call the police.

I wrote to them and asked for them to outline their procedures in case of an emergency - given that they cannot control everyone, things like this can happen, but we want to know how it will be handled going forward (i.e., call super? they wouldn't last time...call police? they asked us not to. etc.). They wrote back and said, essentially, "our procedures are private and we are not required to share them."

Is that right? I was under the impression that tenants had the right to understand emergency procedures in the building.

Regards,
Betty

[JohnMI]

If you have a harassment problem with your neighbor, then call the police. It is not a Landlord issue and they should not be involved. Ignore your LL's request to not call the police and make the call if you have a legal problem with another tenant.

- John...

[BettyKat]

I think this is good advice and was already thinking of filing a police report - I will do so this week.

Does anyone know the answer to the question of whether a tenant has the right to know building emergency/crisis procedures?

If you have a harassment problem with your neighbor, then call the police. It is not a Landlord issue and they should not be involved. Ignore your LL's request to not call the police and make the call if you have a legal problem with another tenant.

- John...

[TenantNet]

Smaller buildings most likely have no such procedures.

In NYC a Fire Safety Notice is required to be posted in every apartment, usually on the rear of entrance doors (like you see in hotels). But that's just a generic list of common-sense procedures.

Multiple Dwellings are required to have a map of elevators and stairwells posted on each floor.

[BettyKat]

Smaller buildings most likely have no such procedures.

In NYC a Fire Safety Notice is required to be posted in every apartment, usually on the rear of entrance doors (like you see in hotels). But that's just a generic list of common-sense procedures.

Multiple Dwellings are required to have a map of elevators and stairwells posted on each floor.

Hmmm....OK. I thought (based on nothing but an apparently misguided sense of emergency planning!) that every building would have procedures. In a building like mine (not sure if it's considered small - has about 220 or so apartments), how else will a doorman on the midnight shift know what to do if, say, a tenant calls and says, "I hear someone screaming in the apartment below me?"

That might be a bad example - after all, you might argue that screaming should equal a call to the police. The truth is, what happens in apartments tends to be more grey. Who here knows what their doorman would do at 2am if you called and said, "I hear someone yelling but I can't make out what they're saying - it's loud enough that it woke me up, but I don't want to overreact and call the cops if it's nothing"?

But my point is just that (a) most of the employees on the 'front lines' are lower paid and tend to have written instructions on how to do everything from accept packages to answer the phone - so it didn't seem like a stretch to assume they have written instructions on dealing with problem tenants, and (b) many problems in a residence are going to occur in the middle of the night, when no one in 'management' is available, thus making (in my mind) the need for written instructions that much more urgent.

Seems like landlords would WANT this kind of protocol - otherwise wouldn't they expose themselves to liability if their agent or employee doesn't follow the law? Put another way: if there is a problem in the middle of the night, I would imagine a landlord would want to be able to say, "our night guard followed our established protocol by calling the police/doing whatever" instead of, "our night guard received a report of a crime but did not call the police or wake the super out of fear of losing his job and a lack of instructions one way or the other."

I may not be explaining this well but I'm just surprised that something so obviously in a landlord's interest isn't well-documented.

[TenantNet]

You sound like you're new to the city.

[BettyKat]

You sound like you're new to the city.

Why?