Landlords Move To Halt Illegal Sublets
LANDLORDS MOVE TO HALT ILLEGAL SUBLETS
New York Times, Published: November 17, 1985 (excerpts)
Tenants who illegally sublet their apartments do so for a number of reasons, including ignorance or indifference to the state law. The law can create a hardship for people who must be away longer than two years because of the difficulty in finding another affordable rental when they return.
Tenants must first obtain a landlord's permission to sublet, but he may not unreasonably withhold it. The law also provides triple damages, interest and attorney's fees to a subtenant who proves that he has been overcharged (previously he could only recover the actual rent overcharge.
The illegal subtenant is often the victim. Mr. Potter cited one recent case in which a Stuyvesant Town subtenant rented an apartment through a broker for about $200 above the proper rent and had no idea it was illegal. ''It's a real problem,'' he said. ''Here was a woman with a young baby and another on the way and she thought everything was on the up-and-up.''
Illegal subletting - which is also known, perhaps overdramatically, as the black market for rent-regulated apartments - is believed to be widespread because of the city's negligible vacancy rate, the high market rents for unregulated apartments and the relatively cheap rents of most of the 1.2 million regulated apartments. A recent state law, however, clarified the right of tenants to sublet and gave landlords powerful weapons against tenants who have turned their apartments into expense-free businesses.
In one recent case cited by the Rent Stabilization Association, a landlord trade group, a tenant at the Continental Towers at 301 East 79th Street obtained the landlord's approval to sublet a one-bedroom apartment for six months at a rent of $724.56 in 1982, but then illegally sublet it for several years at $1,500. In March, the tenant was evicted from the building, which is being converted to a condominium.
''We really don't know how many tenants are illegally subletting,'' said William S. Potter, who manages the 90-acre complex of unadorned 12-story brick buildings, parks and playgrounds, ''but we have fewer than a dozen legal sublets and everywhere we look, we come up with more illegals.''
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0DE5DF1038F934A25752C1A963948260
LANDLORDS MOVE TO HALT ILLEGAL SUBLETS
New York Times, Published: November 17, 1985 (excerpts)
Tenants who illegally sublet their apartments do so for a number of reasons, including ignorance or indifference to the state law. The law can create a hardship for people who must be away longer than two years because of the difficulty in finding another affordable rental when they return.
Tenants must first obtain a landlord's permission to sublet, but he may not unreasonably withhold it. The law also provides triple damages, interest and attorney's fees to a subtenant who proves that he has been overcharged (previously he could only recover the actual rent overcharge.
The illegal subtenant is often the victim. Mr. Potter cited one recent case in which a Stuyvesant Town subtenant rented an apartment through a broker for about $200 above the proper rent and had no idea it was illegal. ''It's a real problem,'' he said. ''Here was a woman with a young baby and another on the way and she thought everything was on the up-and-up.''
Illegal subletting - which is also known, perhaps overdramatically, as the black market for rent-regulated apartments - is believed to be widespread because of the city's negligible vacancy rate, the high market rents for unregulated apartments and the relatively cheap rents of most of the 1.2 million regulated apartments. A recent state law, however, clarified the right of tenants to sublet and gave landlords powerful weapons against tenants who have turned their apartments into expense-free businesses.
In one recent case cited by the Rent Stabilization Association, a landlord trade group, a tenant at the Continental Towers at 301 East 79th Street obtained the landlord's approval to sublet a one-bedroom apartment for six months at a rent of $724.56 in 1982, but then illegally sublet it for several years at $1,500. In March, the tenant was evicted from the building, which is being converted to a condominium.
''We really don't know how many tenants are illegally subletting,'' said William S. Potter, who manages the 90-acre complex of unadorned 12-story brick buildings, parks and playgrounds, ''but we have fewer than a dozen legal sublets and everywhere we look, we come up with more illegals.''
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0DE5DF1038F934A25752C1A963948260
