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Ive rented rent stabilized apts to clients many times (IM AN AGENT) a landlord legally cant ask for more than one months security or rent. Please be careful and report them. Everything must be paid in Checks so you can easily see what the amount of the checks are being made. If hes asking cash then more red flags.
P.T. Barnum said it best: " A sucker is born every five minutes".
just what a LL needs a problem tenant before the tenant even moves in
Huh????? How does making sure you're not being jobbed and that everyone follows the law turn the prospective tenant into a "problem"? Following the law is problematic? Huh?
OP, the landlord and the broker both sound sleazy. If you really like the apartment consider it, and then after moving in report both of them--keep notes on everything and then follow up. Otherwise walk away (and still report them).
since a rent stabilized lease is likely to cite the law right on the application ( LL can ask for one months's security only) i don't understand how a landlord would be able to get away with listing 2 months on the application. it would be a blatant violation of the RS law
I would assume, since I do not know anyone who does this, that there is some sort of a rider, or even just a receipt for the second month that does not specify the second month is a security deposit. Unless, of course, as mentioned earlier, this is a cash request, in which case, it is treated as if it does not exist, or it is listed as part of the broker's commission.
Since it is RS, there is no arguing that each roommate has to pay a full security deposit, as could be required under a non-RS lease when you have students with guarantors.
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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
New York leases on regulated apartments are boilerplate documents and the wording is always the same: one month's security. Some landlords in UNregulated apartments (in a new apartment building, or an apartment in a private house) sometimes use these boilerplates, but most aren't so nice and legally they can write their own lease (in a luxury apartment building) or not have a lease at all (often in a private house). For these, both the secrurity deposit and broker's fee can be anything under the sun.
If your apartment really IS in a regulated building, then the security is ONE MONTH'S rent, period. But your broker's or agent's fees can be as "last-minute revised" as possible, and in Manhattan or Forest Hills in Queens, anything can happen and does. It's all happened to me: once, my broker's fee was one month's rent, another time it was only 75% of one month "if you can pay me the fee in cash" or (this was in an unregulated apartment) a month and a half's rent for the agent and two months' rent for the deposit. One landlord refused to return my deposit when I moved out so I went to the NY State Attorney General's Office to get it back (I got it back in full + interest).
BOTTOM LINE: New York has a housing shortage in all 5 boroughs, so a good number of landlords, agents and brokers are wheeler-dealers out to increase their takes. There are a few good apples among them but a CARTLOAD FULL of bad ones. Yours sounds like a shady broker, but in Manhattan, where so many young people dream of living, most of them are probably shady because they can be.
i am fortunate that my current landlord (RS) and my old landlord (rented in a co op bldg) did everything by the book and did not resort to this stuff mentioned by mason and the other posters
It is up to you what you want to do in this situation. However, I would not rent the apartment, knowingly paying two months of security just to file complaints after you establish tenancy; rather, I would just walk away if they refused to budge on the security deposit issue, and make reports to the appropriate agencies and real estate board.
Thank you for providing all this info. I agree with what you said about walking away. To me, it's just not worth it. I'd rather loose a $300 application fee than $3,000 of two months' security, and then have to go through the headache of filing complaints. Plus, I really don't think I want this guy as my landlord anyway. While the apartment was beautiful and in a great neighborhood, the railroad-style just wasn't ideal. Back to the drawing board.
Thank you for providing all this info. I agree with what you said about walking away. To me, it's just not worth it. I'd rather loose a $300 application fee than $3,000 of two months' security, and then have to go through the headache of filing complaints. Plus, I really don't think I want this guy as my landlord anyway. While the apartment was beautiful and in a great neighborhood, the railroad-style just wasn't ideal. Back to the drawing board.
What complaints? You put down the security & two months deposit, then you don't pay the next month. When he comes knocking you remind him that you already paid that month and he can't hold it. Pretty simple
So the broker got back to me, and stated that the second month's deposit (which they had been calling the "second" security fee) would now be counted as last month's rent, and printed on the lease as such. I told him landlords of rent stabilized units can't ask for last month's rent up front, and he stated they can if the tenants have guarantors, no income (my two part-time jobs just ended, and my roommate will be adjuncting in the fall), and 0 credit (apparently, paying utility and rent bills doesn't count as established credit, you must have an actual credit card). He claims to have called the DHCR and confirmed. This all sounds so convoluted to me, but I will wait and see. In addition, the broker tells me he isn't sure if the unit will be finished in time by my move-in date (July 28), because he didn't even tell the landlord when my exact move-in date was (!) even though I had told him the date 2 weeks earlier. He stated the unit still needs renovations done, and he will know for sure by next Tuesday if it can all be done in a month.
Obviously I do feel like we're being played for suckers, but I guess we just have to let it play out, and be super-cautious. In the meantime, I'm looking for other places.
It is my understanding that you may not ask for a last month's rent on a stabilized lease, regardless as to individual qualifications because your guarantors meet the requirements and are agreeing to pay the rent. I would check with the Metropolitan Council on Housing and the DHCR yourself, because I think it's a spin to try to get the second month. And, it's a good idea to keep looking, especially since now there's doubt as to whether or not it will be ready for market soon.
__________________
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
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