Who is my landlord nyc

Landlords must also make sure any appliances they install, like refrigerators and stoves, are in good and safe working order. There are rules concerning bed bugs and smoking policies. Landlords must keep your apartment free of bedbugs and must provide all tenants with notice of the building smoking policy. Landlords also have requirements related to lead paint, smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, locks and window bars.

Landlords must protect you from reasonably predictable criminal harm. For example, if you are the victim of a crime in your apartment and you can show that the criminals were able to get into your apartment because the landlord did not fix a broken lock on the main door, you may be able to recover damages from your landlord.

Be sure to notify the landlord of all bad conditions in writing. Otherwise, the landlord may claim they did not know of the bad conditions and that is why they were not fixed.

Changes may occur in this area of law. The information provided is brought to you as a public service with the help and assistance of volunteer legal editors, and is intended to help you better understand the law in general. It is not intended to be legal advice regarding your particular problem or to substitute for the advice of a lawyer.

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A landlord can make or break your housing situation, which is why Brooklyn residents Allia Mohamed and Srujan Routhu created a new app to rate landlords called Openigloo.

After downloading the app to your phone, you can search for specific apartment buildings and read reviews left by tenants about the condition of the building and a one- to five-star rating of the neighbors, the owner responsiveness, heat, cleanliness, noise levels, pest control, garbage management and water pressure. The landlord's name is usually included on buildings' pages as well as written tenant reviews and whether there are any COVID measures.

Essentially real-time city data about buildings, open violation data, bed bug complaints, and eviction history is all at your fingertips. And of course, you can also anonymously submit your own reviews of a building you live at or have lived at. So far, Openigloo has more than 1, building reviews and details on more than , properties. Finding an apartment in New York City is hard—so hard, in fact, you might jump at the first available place you visit, even though there's trash piled up by the front door, the elevator isn't working, and the whole places smells like bleach.

But the landlord is just so reassuring and said, "It will be perfect when you move in! So how do you separate the good apartments from the bad? No need to hire a private detective; a few free online resources can address all these concerns—and save you from moving into a grody place in the process. Any major news stories someone was murdered there or serious infractions the landlord ran a drug den will likely show up in the results. Easily the most thorough resource for learning about a building is the DOB's Building Information System , which allows you to see any complaints that have been filed against your building, plus all DOB violations and Environmental Control Board violations.

What does that mean? Complaints are things that were likely called in via "My building elevator has been out for five days! There are two types of violations: the procedural kind that don't need to be issued by a visiting inspector, and ECB violations, which are more severe and are issued during site visits. These include mold, rodent infestations, no hot water, and other things that can make a place uninhabitable.

By law, owners may not deny prospective tenants housing because of race, color, religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, immigrant status, source of income, or legal occupation. Furthermore, tenants may not be denied housing because children may or will be residing with them. Unless the pet can be considered a "service animal" used by blind, deaf or disabled people, whether pets are permitted is at the discretion of the building owner and is usually stipulated in the lease.

If a tenant keeps a pet in the apartment without the building owner's permission, it may be considered a serious violation of the lease and may be a basis for terminating tenancy. In addition, many animals cannot be kept legally as pets in the City of New York. For more information on pet regulations, call Note: The content on this web site is intended for informational purposes only and is not intended to be legal advice or opinion.

The content of this web site may not reflect current legal developments. Since the law is constantly changing and since the law will vary based on different facts and circumstances, statements on this web site regarding the status of a given law or legal issue may not be current or applicable to your particular situation. Tenants' Rights. New Tenant Protection Laws Changes to New York State rent laws, recently passed by lawmakers in Albany, make it harder for landlords to evict any tenant.

The ABCs of Housing. Expand All Collapse All. My landlord refuses to make repairs to my apartment. What can I do? If you are a tenant in a privately-owned building, there are several things you can do to get your landlord to make repairs; however, you may want to take the following steps in order to establish a record: Contact the property owner, managing agent or building superintendent regarding the repairs. If the property owner, managing agent or superintendent does not respond, write a letter that describes the problems in your apartment and asks for the repairs to be made by a certain date.

You should send the letter to the owner and management company by certified mail and keep a copy for your records. If you do not receive a response to the letter, you should try to contact the owner in person or by phone. Let him or her know that if the repairs are not completed, you will have to file a complaint. Keep a record of all of your attempts to get the landlord to make repairs, as this will be useful in court. If the owner still does not respond or fails to provide essential services, you may file a complaint.

You can also bring a case against the property owner in Housing Court to get an order to correct the conditions. This case is called an HP Action. HP actions are lawsuits brought by tenants or groups of tenants against landlords to force them to make repairs and provide essential services, like heat and hot water. In an HP action, a judge can order the landlord to correct the violations. You do not need a lawyer to start an HP case.

Call for information. DHCR may impose penalties on building owners in the form of rent reductions if a tenant's problems are valid.