The Landlords

I was going to write a post on Carl Craig and the amazingness that he is.

However, I'm currently dealing with landlord woes. See, they want to tell me I can't have guests overnight in my apartment. Unfortunately for them, I have a lease, I live in a rent stabilized apartment (note, NOT rent-controlled), and I live in New York City.

Why do these points matter? Here's why - in case any fellow New Yorkers find themselves in this pickle.

-If you have a lease, landlords legally cannot add new provisions to the lease, verbal or written, once the lease is signed (neither can you). So, in my case, our lease says nothing regarding overnight visitors or guests, and so the landlords can't change anything now. If you need clarification regarding your lease or housing situation, call the Tenant Rights Hotline at 212-979-0611 from 1:30 pm to 5:00 pm Monday, Wednesday, or Friday.

-If you live in a rent stabilized building (NOTE: this is different from rent-controlled buildings), the landlords MAY NOT add any provisions to a lease that put restrictions on guests, overnight guests, etc. That is also illegal (there are other restrictions on the landlords, too). To determine if you live in a rent-stabilized building (which generally was built in the mid-20th century, and has 6 or more units), call 718-739-6400.

-So we have terms correct here, an "overnight guest" or "guest," according to New York law, is a non-tenant who is in an apartment/condo/etc for FEWER than 30 CONSECUTIVE days in a year. While this is pretty wide berth, I assume you can get into some pretty hairy legal issues if you press your luck here.

-You have no legal obligation to inform the landlord of when you will be having guests. That is a part of tenant privacy that comes with having a lease to an apartment.

-If you are the only signer on a lease, you may, without consulting the landlord (though you have to provide the landlord with the person's name), bring in a roommate, under 1983's New York Roommate Law. If you have multiple signers on a lease, and one of them leaves, you may replace that person with a roommate (but ONLY in that instance). HOWEVER, you have to let the landlord know of the roommate's name within 30 days of the roommate moving in. The landlord may not stop it, however. Furthermore, the landlord may NOT coerce you into waiving this right.

All of this is pointless if you do not have a lease. If you are month to month, the landlord can bypass everything by walking into your apartment while you're out, moving all of your stuff to the curb, changing the locks, and then declaring you a squatter to the police. They can also serve you 30 days' eviction notice without any fear of legal repercussions, which they cannot do if you have a lease.

However, following my gf's and my debacle here, I'd hate to think that perfectly good tenants elsewhere in New York are getting hosed by unethical landlords.