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The elevator in the rent stabilized building where I reside has been having issues for a while. For example, yesterday it wasn't stopping on my floor although it did work on other floors. I have heard that the new building owner/management are planning on replacing the elevator and it could take up to 2 months. Since there is no other elevator in the building, would the management be obligated if this occurs to make an arrangement for someone to help out the tenants that physically can't carry groceries and laundry up and down stairs? Note there no stairs at all between the first floor and the basement so if the elevator is not working one has to carry the laundry outside and around the building to access the basement.
No. Note the phrase, "Owner should TRY..." not "Owner is required..."
New York Times Blog
MAY 25, 2008May 25, 2008
Rent Adjustments While Elevators Are Replaced
By JAY ROMANO
Q
I live in a rent-stabilized apartment. The landlord would like to replace our elevators this summer. I don’t believe this is necessary, as the elevators seem to work fine, but replacing them will allow him to raise our rents. The official letter from the landlord claims that the work is expected to take four to eight weeks. The full rent should include elevator use, and that will not be provided at this time.
Are there any regulations about rent during this period? If reduced rent is in order, how is it calculated?
A
“An existing elevator is a required service under the Rent Stabilization Law and the Building Code,” said Luise A. Barrack, a Manhattan lawyer who frequently represents landlords. “However, there are no regulations that provide for a reduced rent during a period when the owner is repairing or replacing an elevator.”
Ms. Barrack said that while the work may appear unnecessary, there may be good reasons for replacing the elevators. They may have exhausted their useful life, or they may require a lot of maintenance and replacement parts that are difficult for the owner to obtain.
“Although the owner may apply for and obtain a major capital improvement rent increase for the work, and the tenants will be temporarily inconvenienced, the tenants will benefit by having a new, reliable and technologically advanced elevator,” Ms. Barrack said.
As a practical matter, she added, the owner should try to accommodate the tenants during the period that the elevator is out of service by providing additional assistance to tenants who need help carrying packages upstairs or by offering them rent credit.
In addition, she said, it might be possible to schedule the work so that at least one elevator is working at all times.
The months long elevator replacement saga is one of the oldest tricks in the book that landlords use to make life impossible for as many rent controlled and rent stabilized tenants as possible, in hopes of getting them out and raising the rent roll .This scenario often occurs soon after the property has been sold to a new owner who purchased the building with a business plan to do just that. They are called predatory landlords. It's happening with a vengeance in my neighborhood right now. It's hideously effective because it mostly makes life impossible for old people,who are the ones occupying the rent controlled and very below market stabilized apartments.
This may not necessarily be the case in your building but when you mentioned the "new owner/management" my radar definitely started beeping.
How many floors in your apartment building, Chava61? If it's just 6 or 7 floors, I think that most tenants can survive the ordeal if it's not too long. New York City has or used to have an ordinance that any building higher than 5 stories must have an elevator. I don't know if there is an ordinance specifying the number of elevators that a building must have in relation to height, but having just one elevator is inviting trouble.
I might suggest that someone call a meeting of the building tenants to plan a course of action. Perhaps even collecting money to hire a lawyer to confront the new management. The older traction type elevator installations were built to last a long time with heavy duty DC motors, motor generators, winding drums, cables, counter weights and guide rails. Maybe the old relay logic controls just need to be replaced. That could be why the elevator was skipping floors. It can be replaced with a new computer control.
The building has 6 floors above the ground plus a below the ground basement level which can't be accessed inside the building without a working elevator. There is only one elevator in the building.
I didn't realize that a landlord could raise rents for rent stabilized tenants if s/he installs a new elevator above the yearly percentage allowed by the city. I didn't know that there was such a tactic for trying to displace older tenants. By what percentage could the rents go up?
Even younger people sometimes have issues that they can't carry up several flights of stairs heavy packages, etc. A few years ago under the old management, the elevator was once out of service for a week or 2 for repairs and it wasn't during the winter and that wasn't a big problem. But two months is a whole different matter.
For the moment it is a rumor that I heard at the beginning of August from an unknown neighbor on a higher floor. But yesterday I ran into the building porter who confirmed that he too heard that they planned to replace the elevator but he had no idea when (and he isn't usually in the know about this type of thing).
The building has 6 floors above the ground plus a below the ground basement level which can't be accessed inside the building without a working elevator. There is only one elevator in the building.
I didn't realize that a landlord could raise rents for rent stabilized tenants if s/he installs a new elevator above the yearly percentage allowed by the city. I didn't know that there was such a tactic for trying to displace older tenants. By what percentage could the rents go up?
Even younger people sometimes have issues that they can't carry up several flights of stairs heavy packages, etc. A few years ago under the old management, the elevator was once out of service for a week or 2 for repairs and it wasn't during the winter and that wasn't a big problem. But two months is a whole different matter.
For the moment it is a rumor that I heard at the beginning of August from an unknown neighbor on a higher floor. But yesterday I ran into the building porter who confirmed that he too heard that they planned to replace the elevator but he had no idea when (and he isn't usually in the know about this type of thing).
They can raise the rents above the yearly percentage allowed by the rent guidelines board when they make capital improvements.There are formulas for how it is calculated. If they get rid of a rent controlled or substantially below market rent stabilized tenant they can do a gut renovation and raise the rents substantially,again according to a formula.With rent controlled tenants,just moving the unit from control to stabilization is a bonanza.
Chava61, what is a "building porter?" Maybe he can help elderly or disabled tenants schlep groceries and such up the stairs (for a fee, of course).
Older elevator machinery can be kept going indefinitely, but maintenance costs are high. Elevator maintenance contracts are the bread and butter of the elevator service companies- the older the installation, the higher the contract price. Didn't they just do a complete replacement of the elevators at the Empire State Building, which hoisting equipment dates from the early 1930s?
One thing that the tenants can do would be to hire an engineer to write a report on the condition of the elevator to see if a replacement is absolutely necessary. If not, the tenants could take the new LL to court.
With rent controlled tenants,just moving the unit from control to stabilization is a bonanza.
Can I assume you are just referring to rent controlled tenants and not rent stabilized tenants? I doubt that there are so many rent stabilized tenants that are so far below market rent.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wells5
Chava61, what is a "building porter?" Maybe he can help elderly or disabled tenants schlep groceries and such up the stairs (for a fee, of course).
The building I live in has a live-in super and a porter who works 5 days a week. The porter's job is to handle the garbage and recycling as well clean the public areas of the building. It isn't his job to help individual tenants schlep stuff but I think I did see him help an elderly couple walk up and downstairs back then when the elevator was out for a week or two for maintenance some years ago (when there was a different super as well as a different owner/management company). Also wouldn't the management being paying for the porter to do these extra things if the elevator was replaced rather than the individual tenant who is physically unable to carry stuff themselves several flights of stairs if there is no elevator for a longer period of time?
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