Landlord died two months ago, son took over, concerned about eviction? (apartment, leases)

[sirspacepilot]

So I moved into a new apartment about three months ago, and soon after the landlord suddenly died. His son took over and I've been paying my rent to him. Lately I've been trying to contact him about building security and over the last three weeks I can't get a single response after him being previously easy to get ahold of. I'm starting to get paranoid that maybe his son has decided to back out and/or sell the building and worried about the day I get a letter stating I have 30 days to leave. I'm on a one year lease, but so was a friend of mine that was evicted due to a sold building but not told about it until the eviction notice.

Should I be concerned? What do I do?

[Dangerous-Boy]

get a lawyer or look for a new place


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMXEOtxXRiM

[BugsyPal]

Originally Posted by sirspacepilot

So I moved into a new apartment about three months ago, and soon after the landlord suddenly died. His son took over and I've been paying my rent to him. Lately I've been trying to contact him about building security and over the last three weeks I can't get a single response after him being previously easy to get ahold of. I'm starting to get paranoid that maybe his son has decided to back out and/or sell the building and worried about the day I get a letter stating I have 30 days to leave. I'm on a one year lease, but so was a friend of mine that was evicted due to a sold building but not told about it until the eviction notice.

Should I be concerned? What do I do?

If you have a lease then long as you pay rent on time and or otherwise not violate terms there isn't anything anyone can do to you. Your lease comes with the building thus whomever inherits, purchases or otherwise obtains the property must honor the terms.


In terms of renewal if you aren't rent stabilized then the lease should spell out terms of renewal. Even if it doesn't IIRC NYC does have protections even for non RS tenants. That is the LL cannot simply show up day after your lease ends and throw you on to the street.


Just continue paying your rent, and sending notices of problems to whatever contact address you have for the new owner. Maybe the guy is away or whatever. Ask any of the other tenants if they have had problems reaching the guy.

[sirspacepilot]

Originally Posted by BugsyPal

If you have a lease then long as you pay rent on time and or otherwise not violate terms there isn't anything anyone can do to you. Your lease comes with the building thus whomever inherits, purchases or otherwise obtains the property must honor the terms.


In terms of renewal if you aren't rent stabilized then the lease should spell out terms of renewal. Even if it doesn't IIRC NYC does have protections even for non RS tenants. That is the LL cannot simply show up day after your lease ends and throw you on to the street.


Just continue paying your rent, and sending notices of problems to whatever contact address you have for the new owner. Maybe the guy is away or whatever. Ask any of the other tenants if they have had problems reaching the guy.

Thank you for the reassurance/confirmation- I did some research and it seemed like in the majority of cases tenants stayed out their leases with whomever was the technical owner by inheritance or otherwise. It was the few horror stories that sparked paranoia. I've lived here for around 6 years and it's the first apartment I've really fallen in love with for both the building and location, let alone been able to afford without roommates so I want to protect it for as long as I can. Shame what happened to the initial landlord- I remember him complaining about being tired and needing to sit down about two weeks prior when he came to fix the drain in my tub.

[cheyenne2134]

Originally Posted by sirspacepilot

Thank you for the reassurance/confirmation- I did some research and it seemed like in the majority of cases tenants stayed out their leases with whomever was the technical owner by inheritance or otherwise. It was the few horror stories that sparked paranoia. I've lived here for around 6 years and it's the first apartment I've really fallen in love with for both the building and location, let alone been able to afford without roommates so I want to protect it for as long as I can. Shame what happened to the initial landlord- I remember him complaining about being tired and needing to sit down about two weeks prior when he came to fix the drain in my tub.

Just keep on being a good tenant. you can't predict the future and unfortunately, renting in one place is never a permanent thing (unless RS). He could in fact be in the process of selling the building however you have a lease and must stay until it is done. Now resigning is a different story, you are given a minimum 30 days notice of non-renewal status.

[WithDisp]

Originally Posted by BugsyPal

In terms of renewal if you aren't rent stabilized then the lease should spell out terms of renewal. Even if it doesn't IIRC NYC does have protections even for non RS tenants. That is the LL cannot simply show up day after your lease ends and throw you on to the street.

For able-bodied people, the day your lease ends if your landlord chooses not to renew, the eviction process can begin. UNLESS, they do something stupid like cash a check you send them.