Market-Rate Tenants have new chance to get back into stabilization

New court decisions mean you might be able to get back into rent stabilization

Some things have change that could make it easier for you to get your apartment back into rent stabilization - even if it's been market-rate for over 4 years.  

1.      There is a new on-line portal, NYS Rent Connect  (https://rent.hcr.ny.gov/RentConnect/Welcome) for easily getting your apartment’s rent history.

2.      Two recent court decisions have found that Stellar wildly exaggerated its costs for renovating and reconfiguring its apartments, so the costs may not have been enough to legally take the apartment out of rent regulation​.  The earlier decision is Rossman v. Windermere by a mid-level state court.  The newer decision is Amwest Realty Associates LLC v. Michael Sargeant and Jonathan Saballos, 171 W. 81st St.​  The building manager was the same as ours: Niti Jakupaj. ​

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3.      The most recent court decision found that Stellar intentionally inflat​ed its costs so the court awarded the tenants triple damages.  An intentional inflation of costs could be fraud.  Where there is fraud, you can get around the 4-year statute of limitations for getting an apartment back into rent regulation.

​If you're interested in pursuing this after getting your apartment’s rent history, please contact our tenant association email (CPG Ten Ass {a  t] gmail  dot com) to be put in touch with other tenants with the same goal.  You might be able to share a lawyer and an engineer to cut costs. 

Summary of Tenant Meeting with Ellen Davidson - Jan. 24, 2019

We began with a moment of silence for Ada Marie Wattley and Jacob Brockington.

Photo by Jodi Brockington (c) 2019

Thanks to members of the board and executive committee who have served us long and well but decided not to run this year :  Na'ava Ades, who was  on our legal committee, executive committee, and board for many years; Maria Acevedo, who was our treasurer, a floor captain, and then a board member for decades; Debbie Gonzalez, who is continuing as a fund-raiser and pot luck planner; and Wassie Ayalew, who was a member of our board. 

Congratulations to our new board and executive committee members!  Click here to see the names. 

There is more on building issues below. 

What we can expect from Albany

Photo by Jodi Brockington, (c) 2019

Ellen Davidson spoke. As a Legal Aid Staff Attorney and as a board member of Tenants and Neighbors, she has recently been in several meetings with leading State Senators and Assembly Members concerning tenant bills.  These include applying rent laws statewide and to all tenants, and closing loopholes that give landlords an incentive and a means to oust rent regulated tenants.  Tenants and tenants organizations both upstate and downstate are united in the Upstate Downstate Housing Alliance, with a single Housing Justice for All platform.

Because the Governor has presented his budget and has until March 31st to get it passed,  tenant advocates want to wait until early April to get these bills moving. (The bills have no financial consequences for the state and don't belong in the budget.) The rent laws expire on June 14, 2019, and will be renewed.  Ellen is cautiously optimistic about the bills described below since the Democrats have a big majority (39 to 24) in the Senate and in the Assembly. (No party has had such a big majority in the Senate since 1948.)  

Ellen urged tenants to go up to Albany on one of the Tuesday buses.  With every possible lobbying group on other issues going up every week, we have to make our voices heard!  Contact Andrea Shapiro at andrea@metcouncilonhousing.org to sign up.  

TONIGHT: Vote, and hear about what we can expect from Albany

• How will Albany strengthen tenant protections when the rent laws expire this year?

• Will market tenants get some protection? 

• Will we be stuck with huge Major Capital Improvement increases?

8 PM  - Vote for our tenant association's board and officers - as long as you've paid your $10 dues this year (you can pay at the meeting), and then 

8:15 PM  - Hear Legal Aid Staff Attorney Ellen Davidson of the Tenants and Neighbors' Board on what we can expect from Albany.  State Senator Brian Benjamin will also be there to comment and get your suggestions.  Sign onto our petition in support of Housing Justice for All. 

Policies Matter, People Matter, Elections Matter. Vote on Thursday and hear about Albany!

• How will Albany strengthen tenant protections when the rent laws expire this year?

• Will market tenants get some protection? 

• Will we be stuck with huge Major Capital Improvement increases?

8 PM  - Vote for our tenant association's board and officers - as long as you've paid your $10 dues this year, and then 

8:15 PM  - Hear Legal Aid Staff Attorney Ellen Davidson of the Tenants and Neighbors' Board on what we can expect from Albany.  State Senator Brian Benjamin will also be there to comment and get our suggestions.  Sign onto our petition in support of Housing Justice for All. 

Sad News: Ada Marie Wattley

The Central Park Gardens Tenants' Association mourns the loss of our neighbor

ADA  MARIE  WATTLEY 

who died on January 18, 2019 after a long illness.

We extend our condolences to her husband Alfred and the rest of their family.  

The funeral service will be on 

Wednesday, January 23, 2019 

at noon at the Unity Funeral Home

2352 Eighth Avenue. 

We have a new email address!

Pixabay.com

Our tenant association has a new email address:

CPG Ten Assoc [at sign] gmail  [dot] com

[don't type the spaces or the stuff in brackets]

Every member of the association's executive committee can see it and respond to your questions.  Please add it to your address book!

Got mice? Wet down droppings, etc .before sweeping!!

Publicdomainpictures.net

MICE seem to be coming out of the brickwork. 

WHAT DO MICE LIKE?
Crumbs and food garbage. You can compost, keeping food garbage in the freezer till the Friday Farmer’s Market or until we get composting in the building. It makes for less free-flowing food garbage in the compactor room.
Clutter – all that stuff we accumulate over time, like papers, old plastic containers, too many bags, and bits of cloth.
Leaky faucets, bowls of water for pets, condensation
Small openings, like around: the gas pipe leading to your stove the pipes leading to your sinks and toilet, the pipes leading into and away from your radiators, and the small wall openings for telephone wires.
Cheese and peanut butter
Peace and quiet.  So when drilling vibrations hit the walls, they come out.
Cat-free homes

WHAT KEEPS MICE AWAY

Seal your food up: Metal or heavy-plastic sealed containers with tight lids, or keeping food in the fridge.  Putting an open box of crackers in a thin plastic bag may not be enough.

Clear up  clutter,  leaving the mice nothing to build a nest with or to hide in.

Dry areas Get your leaks repaired.

Sign up for the exterminator at the guard’s desk.  Ask him to seal all the openings.  If he doesn’t do it, stuff fine steel wool (not with soap in it) or knitted copper wire mesh around the pipes and other openings.

Once the openings are sealed, trap the mice that may already be inside your apartment.   (Don’t use poison: you’ll end up with smelly dead mice in the walls.)

If you see droppings or trap a mouse:  Don’t sweep or vacuum until the area is wet with a bleach mixture.  (You could end up with dust containing lethal viruses in the air.)  With rubber gloves, mix detergent plus 1.5 cups of bleach in a gallon of water. Spray dead rodents, traps, droppings, and the areas where you found them. Put the sprayed dead rodent or droppings in a plastic bag and seal it. Then put that in another plastic bag, seal it, and put down the chute.  Or call one of the building staff.

CAUTION: The landlord can evict a tenant for not clearing up a nuisance like clutter. If you think you, like many of your neighbors,  might have a problem, contact the tenant association’s executive committee for help.