[Oh, by the way, we're working on your bathroom ceiling today]
From the EVG inbox…
Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer and Council Member Rosie Mendez today celebrated the Council’s passage of Int. 222, legislation requiring landlords provide tenants with advance notice for non-emergency repair work that will result in disruptions to building services.
The bill establishes a general baseline of 72 hours’ advance notice for most work. For work affecting elevators, the bill requires 10 business days’ notice for major alteration work and 24 hours’ notice for any other work that will suspend all elevator service for more than two hours.
This legislation, sponsored jointly by Mendez and Brewer, closes a gaping hole in the city’s tenant-protection laws, which currently provide no such advance-notice requirements.
“Tenants deserve fair warning and an opportunity to plan around disruptive maintenance work,” said Brewer. “It’s also no secret that no-notice quality-of-life disruptions labeled as ‘maintenance work’ are a frequent harassment tactic to push tenants out of rent-stabilized apartments. Our notice requirement will be easy for honest, everyday landlords and building managers to respect, but it will take another harassment tool away from abusive landlords.”
“This legislation codifies common sense and common courtesy,” said Councilwoman Rosie Mendez. “No longer will tenants come home from a hard days work to find out that work in their building is interrupting some basic service and/or possibly obstructing access to their apartment. This law requires that landlords notify tenants when such work will affect services and for how long.”
Many landlords and management companies already provide advance notice of planned repairs to tenants – but many do not. The reasonable notice requirements established by Int. 222 would help tenants plan ahead to minimize the impacts of these service disruptions on their lives, and also help tenants distinguish between disruptions for planned work on the one hand, and emergent service failures or landlord harassment tactics on the other.
Great news! Our building, featured on EVG, recently sold to voracious developers who are known for ripping out stairs without telling anyone along with other egregious behavior reported here. At least now we may get some warning.
ReplyDeleteOkay that sounds good in theory but what fines and penalties does a landlord receive when the do not follow this law? How long would it take to stop illegal service stops? I hope there is more to this law like a big set of sharp teeth to bite the landlords wallet and ass.
ReplyDeleteAs always good intentions and unintended consequences will make this a disaster. As a small building owner I can guarantee this will be a disaster. Big corps will not really care and eat violations but for the small guy it works like this. I notify tenants that work will be done on the 15th of May on the 12 of May. OK great - I am following the law. Now the plumber or whoever does not show up on the 15th and says I can only fit you in on the 17th, and trust me this happens a lot. Just think how many times you ordered a cable guy and they they said 12-4 and then called to say we can't make it in time when you took half a day off work. Now what do I do do I break the law and say nope let's reschedule for 4 months from now when you have a free slot or break the law and not give 72 hours notice? This may not be an emergency at the time but if not addressed the problem gets worse and worse. Like everything all these laws are window dressing to write violations on the small guy to make sure they go out of business and the big boys buy up all the property. Then everyone who lives in the neighborhood wonders why all the mom and pop shops are closing which many were owned and run by small building owners or small building owners that had good relationships with the businesses. Then the big boys take over and chase all the mom and pops away and all you have left is banks and Starbucks. All landlords are not evil but the system is.
ReplyDeleteWell at least the seat was down in that picture.
ReplyDeleteThis is not idiotic. Anyone who has lived through renovations being done by aggressive landlords knows this. Bad acting landlords have been riding roughshod all over us for years. Will this be effective? Hmm, we can debate that, but to dismiss it out of hand as idiotic is, to my mind...um, idiotic.
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