More rent-law fallout: Landlords back off “absentee” tenants (subletting, apartments)

[fluttereagle]

Interesting article in The Real Deal: https://therealdeal.com/2019/10/09/m...entee-tenants/

Rent stabilized apartments are required to be one's primary residence. However, the system is abused by tenants using these apartments as pied-à-terres or subletting them for a profit.

The primary enforcement was for landlords to take these tenants to civil court and get them evicted, but now there is no incentive to do so (due to the 20% vacancy bonus being eliminated, rent increases for improvements being much more limited, and near impossibility of deregulating the apartment).

In fact the landlord might actually prefer having an absentee tenant under the new system due to less wear and tear on the apartment and the possibility of the laws changing in the future to crack down on this type of fraud. I bet there will be a steady increase in the number of absentee tenants over the next few years.

[mathjak107]

Originally Posted by fluttereagle

Interesting article in The Real Deal: https://therealdeal.com/2019/10/09/m...entee-tenants/

Rent stabilized apartments are required to be one's primary residence. However, the system is abused by tenants using these apartments as pied-à-terres or subletting them for a profit.

The primary enforcement was for landlords to take these tenants to civil court and get them evicted, but now there is no incentive to do so (due to the 20% vacancy bonus being eliminated, rent increases for improvements being much more limited, and near impossibility of deregulating the apartment).

In fact the landlord might actually prefer having an absentee tenant under the new system due to less wear and tear on the apartment and the possibility of the laws changing in the future to crack down on this type of fraud. I bet there will be a steady increase in the number of absentee tenants over the next few years.

I agree ...at this point it is what it is for a landlord ...if the apartment is at or close to market then. It is a moot point as long as they are paying the rent ...if they are below market the slight increase may not be worth the hassle of trying to prove how many days they spend here..

You would still need to hassle with courts to agree and evict

[Mr. Ryu]

There was a time that Charles Rangel had 4 rent control apts.