We moved into an owner occupied brownstone several months ago. Everything seemed ok at first but months little things have come up that have shown the landlords as stingy, petty and unreasonable. Lots of thing in a supposedly new renovation broke within a few months of move in. They won't return phone calls and only email us w/o really answering questions. Won't talk to us in person at all about problems in the house. Heat was off many days this winter, boiler broken.
As a condition of renting we were supposed to get access to a shared backyard. We did not ask to put it on the lease and now the owner has changed his mind and restricted access. The only notice we received was a confusing email notes and very aggressive in tone and language.
Besides the fact that this is a change in the terms of our move in, now we are worried about renewing our lease. Do we have any rights in a small owner occupied building? Can the owners raise our rent and how much? Are there limits? Also, is there a legal time frame in which they have to tell us they are raising our rent -- like 60 days notice?
We trusted the owners but since they have turned out to not be trustworthy we need help to know what our legal leg to stand on is! As we are aware that owner occupied buildings have different rules. And the nice reasonable discussion route seems to not be working....