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I have rented a room in my apartment for almost 6 years now. I have discovered something very curious and horrifying:
As I was searching for a paper with the internet password, I saw the lease papers for the apartment. My roommates are on the lease; I am not. The the total cost per month is $1750 or something. I pay $675, my other roommate (also not on the lease) pays something like $1000. This means the roommates on the lease pay nothing, or next to nothing, without us knowing. We literally pay for them to afford their lease.
I think they are able to do this because my room does not have a window, and I'm wondering if it even counts as a room. Now that I know how much my the apartment costs, I just can't see how a three-bedroom in Williamsburg can go for $1800.
Is this legal? Do I have any rights? I am thinking it is legal, and my roommates are just con artists and there is nothing I can do.
I'd love the advice of others. I happen to be leaving at the end of the month anyway, to get an apartment with my boyfriend, and I want to know if I can do anything about the situation.
$675 is a more than fair price for a room in Williamsburg. Even with no windows.
The place is probably stabilized. Maybe you should've moved there 20 years ago and "built the neighborhood" lol. I love how people with stabilized leases claim credit for the escalation in urban real estate prices that's happening nationwide.
I would never rent a room that doesn't have a window.
Other than that, you agreed to $675. There is nothing illegal about it. If I rent an apartment for $1000 and find 2 roommates and charge them $500 each and I pay nothing, oh well. That just makes me a good businesswoman and not a 'con artist'!
You should have asked for a copy of the lease 6 years ago.
Age old con. This happens everywhere. I dated a guy over a decade ago that leased a three bedroom place and would rent out the two extra rooms for more than half the rent each while he lived rent free and made a small profit. Sometimes the roommates not on the lease would find out about it and sometimes they wouldn't. In nearly every case they always felt cheated.
I have rented a room in my apartment for almost 6 years now. I have discovered something very curious and horrifying:
As I was searching for a paper with the internet password, I saw the lease papers for the apartment. My roommates are on the lease; I am not. The the total cost per month is $1750 or something. I pay $675, my other roommate (also not on the lease) pays something like $1000. This means the roommates on the lease pay nothing, or next to nothing, without us knowing. We literally pay for them to afford their lease.
I think they are able to do this because my room does not have a window, and I'm wondering if it even counts as a room. Now that I know how much my the apartment costs, I just can't see how a three-bedroom in Williamsburg can go for $1800.
Is this legal? Do I have any rights? I am thinking it is legal, and my roommates are just con artists and there is nothing I can do.
I'd love the advice of others. I happen to be leaving at the end of the month anyway, to get an apartment with my boyfriend, and I want to know if I can do anything about the situation.
If you want to be really bitchy you can contact the landlord and let him know what's going on but he might not care.The real con might be that the place is not even legal or that the maximum legal rent is only $950 to begin with, so he could be conning you all.
I lived in Williamsburg for a long time and from my experience most of the Hasidic landlords are charging illegal rents to begin with,creating totally illegal apartments,breaking every code in the book and doing absolutely no maintenance.Basically,they don't care what goes on as long as they get their illegal rents,preferably in cash.I'm sure you don't want to think of it this way but in reality they are just slumlords.
I think it is actually illegal to use an interior room with no windows and no closets as a bedroom but it has become so pervasive in recent years that I don't know whether even the city really cares anymore……unless there is a fire and someone gets killed and then they throw the book.If the "room" you have been inhabiting is obviously a recent creation made with fake walls,etc you might have more leverage in waging a war.You could tell the landlord you are going to report the code violation.
But there is a chance that the landlord will get enraged by their scam and either get rid of them or jack their rent up even higher.
I have rented a room in my apartment for almost 6 years now. I have discovered something very curious and horrifying:
As I was searching for a paper with the internet password, I saw the lease papers for the apartment. My roommates are on the lease; I am not. The the total cost per month is $1750 or something. I pay $675, my other roommate (also not on the lease) pays something like $1000. This means the roommates on the lease pay nothing, or next to nothing, without us knowing. We literally pay for them to afford their lease.
I think they are able to do this because my room does not have a window, and I'm wondering if it even counts as a room. Now that I know how much my the apartment costs, I just can't see how a three-bedroom in Williamsburg can go for $1800.
Is this legal? Do I have any rights? I am thinking it is legal, and my roommates are just con artists and there is nothing I can do.
I'd love the advice of others. I happen to be leaving at the end of the month anyway, to get an apartment with my boyfriend, and I want to know if I can do anything about the situation.
I do not get why you think this is conning---- is your agreement with the room mate on the lease or the landlord. Either really has the right to charge you whatever the market will bear and if you don't like it move. Now you could probably cause a real problem because you might be in an illegal situation but it does not sound like it to me. My daughter was a roommate in a railroad style apartment and was in the
middle room with no windows for a while and so what... she paid less than the others but it did not really bother her with no windows....
Your option of course is to go try and rent out a place yourself and then get roommates to come in and pay you for a place to stay and see if you can do the same as the very smart roommate you are with now. The good thing is not being on the lease you can leave anytime you want and don't even have to give notice. Such a deal
Do you think a landlord rents it to you for what he pays? So why would the person who holds the lease? You obviously thought it was a good deal if you stayed there for six years, so why does what other people pay affect you?
If you tried doing anything about it, you'd become the conning person....trying to get money back for a roof that has already been over your head.
I wouldn't call them con artists exactly-- because you were offered a room for a price and they delivered it when you paid. They may indeed be renting it out illegally or without the consent of the landlord. A bedroom without a window sounds suspicious. You'd need to spend a significant amount of time and effort to *possibly* get anything out of this. Probably not worth the trouble.
I will say its a little sad that you lived with them for 6 years and the leaseholders were never transparent with you.
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