Q: My husband and I moved right into a seventh-floor rental condominium in a prewar constructing in Riverdale final fall. The constructing has one elevator, which was changed just some years in the past, but it surely has been breaking down a minimum of as soon as per week since December. We’re getting older up towards 70, and with an older canine within the condominium, seven flights up and down a number of occasions a day is taking a toll. Can we break our two-year lease and never be held to the settlement primarily based on this ongoing problem?
A: You will have a number of choices price exploring. In New York State, seniors have sure “particular rights” relating to renting residences. For instance, relying on the place you see your self residing subsequent, tenants who’re a minimum of 62 years outdated might terminate their lease with out penalty in the event that they’re shifting right into a well being care facility, senior housing advanced or authorities backed housing, mentioned Andrew Scherer, a professor of regulation at New York Regulation Faculty and the writer of “Residential Landlord-Tenant Regulation in New York.”
As a result of the defective elevator has created a well being hazard, you additionally may doubtlessly break your lease and declare that you’ve been “constructively evicted,” Mr. Scherer mentioned. In line with Cornell Regulation Faculty’s Authorized Data Institute, constructive eviction will be claimed in courtroom when a tenant has moved out of a rental unit over a difficulty that brought about the unit to develop into unlivable, and the owner has didn’t resolve the issue regardless of being notified.
Mr. Scherer famous that the owner is legally obligated to to relet the condominium if you happen to go away earlier than the lease ends. “The tenant won’t be accountable for lease for the rest of the lease if the owner both relets the condominium or fails to take cheap steps to relet,” he mentioned, although he instructed consulting an legal professional earlier than pursuing any authorized choice.
If you happen to select to remain, there are different routes you can take. Failure to maintain the elevator functioning “is a breach of the owner’s obligation to keep up the residence,” Mr. Scherer mentioned. So you can be entitled to a discount of lease for the months you’ve gone with out it working correctly. You additionally may band together with your neighbors and kind a tenants’ affiliation to “start a authorized continuing to acquire a courtroom order to pressure the owner to repair the issue,” he mentioned. You possibly can do that alone, too, however having extra folks on board will solely assist your probabilities.
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