Legal/Illegal Apartments

amother

Wed, Oct 26 2011, 12:33 pm

Not sure where to post this - so here goes.
What makes an apartment legal/illegal? What is the problem with an illegal apartment? Who is "illegal" the landlord or the tenant?
DH and I are both 'straight and narrow, law abiding citizens'. When we rented our apartment, we assumed that the fact that it had been advertised as able to take HUD, meant that it was a legal apartment. Recently, based on some comments from our landlady, it seems that everything isn't as 'glatt' as we had thought. Although something doesn't feel right about it, I was just wondering what the real ramifications are, becasue once we are here, I don't think
Thanks
(anon because enough people know my dilemma and don't want to give away my sn)

Queen18

Wed, Oct 26 2011, 12:40 pm

Not sure of the ramifications on HUD but part of the definition relates to the apartment being up to code. An illegal apartment may not have the requisite number of exits, sufficient ceiling height, etc. as is frequently the problem in basement apartments. So, make sure the apartment is safe in terms of exiting in a fire.

In terms of the landlord, renting out an illegal apartment can be risky as it may be harder to evict tenants.

A real estate attorney can probably give you greater clarification.

amother

Wed, Oct 26 2011, 1:16 pm

From what I understand, the problem with an illegal apartment (aside from potentially serious safety problems) is that neither landlord nor tenent has any rights at all.

They will have a hard time evicting you or enforcing rent payment/rules through the courts.
That said, if they come to you and tell you you have to get out because they need the apartment for someone else, you will not be able to argue with them. The lease will be invalid in court.

If something happens that destroys all of your belongings or something, there is no legal recourse.

It is very risky to rent such a place. I did, unknowingly when I was younger, and it cost me a lot of
headache and money when it flooded and much of my stuff was ruined.

They flat-out refused to compensate me and when I tried to sue, I was told I couldn't because the apartment was illegal in the first place.

The number and location of exits is not something people think about everyday, but when you need one and it's not there, the results can be tragic!

I would really recommend you stay away from this type of situation.

ElTam

Wed, Oct 26 2011, 5:19 pm

Here's a site with some info on illegal apartment law in New York:

http://www.queensbp.org/conten.....shtml

If you get down to the bottom it comes up with info that pertains to tenants. I'm sure there are other good Web sites out there that could help you. Hatzlacha.