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I'm here to seek advice regarding the NYC 3-month Pet Law that states that 'residents living in buildings with more than three units may keep a pet in a no-pet building if that animal has been kept "openly and notoriously" for three months or more.' My residence is not a building with more than three units, and under negotiations with my tenant on their original lease to allow one dog, we noticed that they may be harboring more than one dog. We want to work with the tenants, so when we asked if the additional dog I saw on the premise was theirs, they said that they were watching it for a friend - this is not kept 'openly and notoriously'. Unfortunately, we did not ask them to specify the dog when signing the lease and have only referred to them allowing one dog on premise.
This appears to have been going on-and-off for a year, and on multiple occasions, we hear their pets barking and/or running down the stairs at midnight and even at 2 AM in the morning. Sometimes, that additional pet would be on premise and the original pet would not. Other times, the original pet would be on premise and the additional one would be 'with their owner.' Most of the time we happened to meet the tenants, we do see them have both pets. The pets are unleased on premise (understandably so) and even in shared spaces, such as the entryway but do not appear to be completely trained. Dogs would be dashing at me when the tenants open their door. The pets have made considerable damage to the hardwood floor and stairs, and their initial security deposit (we never rented to tenants with pets before) won't be able to cover the cost to repair the damage.
We really do love the tenants, but we want them to stick to the lease. They have a lease extension agreement coming up at the end of their tenancy. We only allow one pet on the premise and would like to amend the original lease to specify the specific dog, without the grandfather clause. Is there any way we can enforce new clauses to this lease extension to cover the failures of the original lease to address the pet(s)? Are there any forms or written notices that covers this scenario, if they are not 'openly and notoriously' keeping the pets? Are we allowed to introduce the pet security deposit, when the original lease allowed one pet? Is there any way we can work with the tenants to sort this out? I think they're at the point where they're openly avoiding us.
I really wish that a building with a "no pet" lease could enforce the no-pet rule.
My building has hundreds of dogs that I would love to see evicted. But we have a board that is so fearful of lawsuits, all it can do is shove regulation reiterations under doors.
If you are a market rate building, I think you can amend the lease as you see fit. With rent stabilization, the terms of the original lease must remain for a lease extension.
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We really do love the tenants, but we want them to stick to the lease.
You put yourself in a bind by wanting the tenants to stay but to abide by your rules. Your only "hammer" is an eviction threat and if you don't exercise it, you have no means of enforcing the lease. If you cannot say "Either the second dog goes or you do" then you will have to live with the problem.
Last edited by Kefir King; 04-20-2016 at 06:38 AM..
I'm here to seek advice regarding the NYC 3-month Pet Law that states that 'residents living in buildings with more than three units may keep a pet in a no-pet building if that animal has been kept "openly and notoriously" for three months or more.' My residence is not a building with more than three units, and under negotiations with my tenant on their original lease to allow one dog, we noticed that they may be harboring more than one dog. We want to work with the tenants, so when we asked if the additional dog I saw on the premise was theirs, they said that they were watching it for a friend - this is not kept 'openly and notoriously'. Unfortunately, we did not ask them to specify the dog when signing the lease and have only referred to them allowing one dog on premise.
This appears to have been going on-and-off for a year, and on multiple occasions, we hear their pets barking and/or running down the stairs at midnight and even at 2 AM in the morning. Sometimes, that additional pet would be on premise and the original pet would not. Other times, the original pet would be on premise and the additional one would be 'with their owner.' Most of the time we happened to meet the tenants, we do see them have both pets. The pets are unleased on premise (understandably so) and even in shared spaces, such as the entryway but do not appear to be completely trained. Dogs would be dashing at me when the tenants open their door. The pets have made considerable damage to the hardwood floor and stairs, and their initial security deposit (we never rented to tenants with pets before) won't be able to cover the cost to repair the damage.
We really do love the tenants, but we want them to stick to the lease. They have a lease extension agreement coming up at the end of their tenancy. We only allow one pet on the premise and would like to amend the original lease to specify the specific dog, without the grandfather clause. Is there any way we can enforce new clauses to this lease extension to cover the failures of the original lease to address the pet(s)? Are there any forms or written notices that covers this scenario, if they are not 'openly and notoriously' keeping the pets? Are we allowed to introduce the pet security deposit, when the original lease allowed one pet? Is there any way we can work with the tenants to sort this out? I think they're at the point where they're openly avoiding us.
This is what comes from small landlords trying to do things on their own. Not to be mean but you should have had competent legal advice (from an attorney) when drawing up the original lease. You also should have sought the advice of same soon as you suspected more than one pet was being kept by the tenant.
At this point it is a crap shoot. You can try and get your tenant to agree to whatever new terms and or demands regarding the dog situation. OTOH they can turn around and claim you knew of the existence of more than one dog and did nothing about it that would stand up in court.
If this is a market rate tenant you could always decline to renew the lease, but even there you may run into issues if having left things too long.
In this case, I should consult an attorney on the proper way to approach this, right? The original lease was provided by the realtor who took advantage of the landlord and I was stuck having to deal with the consequences. And since we had no clause that prohibited the 'guest' pet, we couldn't take action until the lease renewal. They also claimed that the ownership of the dog did not reside with them, but we couldn't prove if it did belong to the tenants or not.
It's a market-rate tenant so we had intentions to increase the rent up to market value this year, so it'll be a take-it-or-leave-it measure and have the attorney handle any further disruptions.
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