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 only a few years in the past, but it surely has been breaking down not less than as soon as every week since December. We’re growing older up towards 70, and with an older canine within the condominium, seven flights up and down a couple of occasions a day is taking a toll. Can we break our two-year lease and never be held to the settlement based mostly on this ongoing subject?
A: You may have a number of choices value exploring. In New York State, seniors have sure “particular rights” in the case of renting flats. For instance, relying on the place you see your self dwelling subsequent, tenants who’re not less than 62 years previous might terminate their lease with out penalty in the event that they’re shifting right into a well being care facility, senior housing complicated or authorities backed housing, stated Andrew Scherer, a professor of legislation at New York Regulation College 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 got been “constructively evicted,” Mr. Scherer stated. In accordance with Cornell Regulation College’s Authorized Data Institute, constructive eviction could be claimed in court docket when a tenant has moved out of a rental unit over a difficulty that induced 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 when you depart earlier than the lease ends. “The tenant won’t be accountable for hire for the rest of the lease if the owner both relets the condominium or fails to take cheap steps to relet,” he stated, although he urged consulting an lawyer earlier than pursuing any authorized possibility.
In the event you select to remain, there are different routes you might take. Failure to maintain the elevator functioning “is a breach of the owner’s obligation to keep up the residence,” Mr. Scherer stated. So you might be entitled to a discount of hire for the months you’ve gone with out it working correctly. You additionally may band along with your neighbors and type a tenants’ affiliation to “start a authorized continuing to acquire a court docket order to pressure the owner to repair the issue,” he stated. You may do that alone, too, however having extra folks on board will solely assist your possibilities.
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