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Hi everyone, any advice on the follow issue would be greatly appreciated.
For the past year or so, my roommate and I have been renting an apartment in the West Village from a well-reputed landlord. Our apartment is on the ground floor of a building, and is a duplex with two bedrooms in the basement. Thus, the bedrooms have no windows at all. Each room has its own door and besides that, there are no sources of natural light, no ventilation, and no means of egress. There are 3 windows on the upper level of our apartment where our kitchen, living room, and main bathroom are.
When moving in, it struck us as odd that in our two-bedroom apartment, neither bedroom had a window - how would we get out in the event of a fire? But we dismissed our doubts, assuming that a well-reputed real estate company would not break the law and rent out two windowless bedrooms illegally. We are now realizing that we were naive to take the apartment.
As the year has gone on, we’ve become less and less comfortable living in these windowless rooms. We feel very anxious that we would be completely trapped in the event of a fire. Safety issues aside, the psychological effect of sleeping in a windowless room is something you can't predict until it starts affecting you. We feel it has interfered negatively with our sleep and states of mind.
With this in mind, we did some research into our situation and found that these bedrooms cannot be legally rented to us. And, the upstairs of our apartment where the windows are, cannot be used as a bedroom under the legal definition of a bedroom, as you must pass through them to access other parts of the apartment. That is to say, no rooms in our apartment can be legally defined as bedrooms and thus is should not have been rented at all.
Does anyone know what our rights are, and how we should go about complaining to the landlord? We can't help but feel cheated out of all the money we have spent on rent living in these terrible rooms. We don't really want to pursue legal action but want to know what the landlord can possibly do to make amends. Many thanks!
We have no idea what state you even live in or what the building codes are for rentals in your state. Contact an attorney. You need legal advice and no one here can give you that.
What is a “bedroom”?
(Source: NYC Administrative Code § 27-2004, -2076, -2058; MDL § 1-4-18)
• Lighting Requirements: All bedrooms must have at least one window that opens to a street, yard, or court on the same lot.
The window may also open to a balcony that opens on a street, yard, or court. The total area of the windows in the room must at least be one-tenth the floor area of the room. All required windows must be at least twelve square feet in area.
Additional Points: A room may not be counted as a bedroom if it is a: kitchen, foyer, bathroom,
water closet, dining room, dinette, dining bay, hall, corridor, or passageway. A room may not be counted as a bedroom if an occupant must pass through it to reach other parts of the apartment.
Okay, then contact an attorney. No one here can give you the legal advice you need to proceed or what action to take. You obviously have some recourse considering he is renting an illegal premises but what that recourse is only an attorney can tell you.
After further reading, it appears (and I am not a legal resource whatsoever) that you will have to vacate the property once it is reported. The LL gets a slap on the hand and small fine according to this when they get a repair/vacate notice. http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/hpd/downl...Cellar-new.pdf
That is why I suggest you contact an attorney and see if they can find some loop holes for you to have any recourse other than just reporting the LL to the city.
I would guess they can rent it as a studio since it has a living room, the bottom can be for storage or dens and if you want to sleep there so be it. Is there any kind of exit from the basement such as a door? I would just get a fire extinguisher and keep it near the exit towards upstairs and another outside the bedroom.
It was rented to us as a 2 bedroom apartment, both of our names are on the lease (mine and my roommate). The living room cannot be classified as a bedroom as you must walk through it to reach other parts of the apartment (the two rooms downstairs). There's no exit from the basement beside the staircase going to the upper level.
I just looked at the Certificate of Occupancy for our apt building and the basement level has 0 habitable rooms. That is to say, our landlord is illegally renting it to us as a 2 bedroom apt.
I really don't want to go to court or pursue a legal battle over this. But I want the landlord to know that we're onto them. And I don't want to keep paying extortionate rent for an illegal and unsafe apartment. Do you think my best approach is to just convey this to the LL and see what they say?
Maybe not a legal place but you still have to pay rent if you stay there. Like Judge Judy says..." you eat the steak, you pay for it"
Move and start over. If it was really a big concern you would never moved in and otherwise already moved out.
Usually this question comes up when people need money or want something else like break a lease.
Quote:
Originally Posted by andy612
Hi everyone, any advice on the follow issue would be greatly appreciated.
For the past year or so, my roommate and I have been renting an apartment in the West Village from a well-reputed landlord. Our apartment is on the ground floor of a building, and is a duplex with two bedrooms in the basement. Thus, the bedrooms have no windows at all. Each room has its own door and besides that, there are no sources of natural light, no ventilation, and no means of egress. There are 3 windows on the upper level of our apartment where our kitchen, living room, and main bathroom are.
When moving in, it struck us as odd that in our two-bedroom apartment, neither bedroom had a window - how would we get out in the event of a fire? But we dismissed our doubts, assuming that a well-reputed real estate company would not break the law and rent out two windowless bedrooms illegally. We are now realizing that we were naive to take the apartment.
As the year has gone on, we’ve become less and less comfortable living in these windowless rooms. We feel very anxious that we would be completely trapped in the event of a fire. Safety issues aside, the psychological effect of sleeping in a windowless room is something you can't predict until it starts affecting you. We feel it has interfered negatively with our sleep and states of mind.
With this in mind, we did some research into our situation and found that these bedrooms cannot be legally rented to us. And, the upstairs of our apartment where the windows are, cannot be used as a bedroom under the legal definition of a bedroom, as you must pass through them to access other parts of the apartment. That is to say, no rooms in our apartment can be legally defined as bedrooms and thus is should not have been rented at all.
Does anyone know what our rights are, and how we should go about complaining to the landlord? We can't help but feel cheated out of all the money we have spent on rent living in these terrible rooms. We don't really want to pursue legal action but want to know what the landlord can possibly do to make amends. Many thanks!
It was rented to us as a 2 bedroom apartment, both of our names are on the lease (mine and my roommate). The living room cannot be classified as a bedroom as you must walk through it to reach other parts of the apartment (the two rooms downstairs). There's no exit from the basement beside the staircase going to the upper level.
I just looked at the Certificate of Occupancy for our apt building and the basement level has 0 habitable rooms. That is to say, our landlord is illegally renting it to us as a 2 bedroom apt.
I really don't want to go to court or pursue a legal battle over this. But I want the landlord to know that we're onto them. And I don't want to keep paying extortionate rent for an illegal and unsafe apartment. Do you think my best approach is to just convey this to the LL and see what they say?
NYC real estate is prime, I would assume it's priced right. The Village is very expensive.
If you worry about a fire then move, you should be able to get out of your lease easily.
It you want to stay and threaten the LL you can try.
If he is smart he can rerent it as a studio with 2 dens, the square footage will alert people to the fact that it is a big place as long as he can list the bottom level as square footage.
What I would ask for right away are 3 fire extinguishers, one by the stairs and one for each bedroom.
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