This is what would you do: The Marriage Conundrum Part 2. I about to share with you what happened to this person but first the recap.
Recap
A couple decides to marry. The wife has been renting an apartment before the marriage. She placed her husband on the lease. The landlord decides to raise the rent because of this.
To reduce the rent the couple divorces. The landlord lowers the rent. The couple continues to see each other. The ex-husband visits his ex-wife in the apartment, spendings days with her. The ex-wife dies soon after the divorce. The ex-husband is evicted.
The ex-husband enters the Section 8 program and finds an apartment. This apartment is in very poor condition. The radiator is a fire hazard. The owner states that the apartment will be ready for habitation by the time the tenant moves in. The landlord tells the tenant that he must make a decision today. A deposit must be paid before he moves in.
The Marriage Conundrum Part 2: What Happened
The tenant said he will take the apartment. He returned to the apartment a few days later. The apartment was still a wreck. The landlord splashed some paint on the walls but that was it. The holes were still there. The floor is still a mess and the fire hazard radiator is still in the apartment.
The landlord told the tenant that he must take the apartment because he is on a program. He tells the tenant that he must sign a lease now.
The tenant signs the lease. He is not ready to move in yet so he leaves the apartment. His sister contacts me. She tells me what has happened. Her question, what should she do to help her brother?
Do Not Pay Anything
I tell her to tell him not to make any payments. Do not answer your phone and contact a city lawyer. Let the program know what has happened. Pretty much in that order.
Note: Rental programs pay the rent.
If anything he would have to pay a part of the rent. And he should not have paid a deposit.
Apartment Inspection
Apartments are usually inspected by Section 8 before they are approved for the program. The ex-husband could not accept the apartment until Section 8 conducted an inspection. This apartment would never have passed inspection.
Note: The apartment inspection is one step in a long process. None of those steps were followed.
The Lease
Leases to program apartments are in triplicate. One to the owner. Another to the tenant and the last one to the program. Depending on the prevailing procedure Section 8 may have required the closing to take place at one of their locations. That did not happen here.
Possible Scam
There is no doubt in my mind that this was a scam by the owner. If not, then this owner is among the worse of slumlords.
What should have happened
From the very beginning, there are rental laws that could have stopped all this. Let’s go back to the first landlord.
Violation of Fair Housing Law
It is a violation of Fair Housing laws to set rental amounts based on marital status. The first landlord changed the rental amount because the leaseholder got married. This is evident by the fact that he lowered the rent when she divorced her husband.
Amount of People in Apartment
But let’s say he raised the rent because of the number of people in the apartment. Owners believe that they can raise the rent because the extra person is running up their water bill. This is not true.
In New York, the number of people allowed in an apartment is governed by many factors. The most important of these is sanitary living conditions. Therefore a rule of thumb about apartments is two people per bedroom.
In a one-bedroom apartment, two people can inhabit the apartment. If one of those people should give birth to a child after moving in nothing changes. An owner cannot set rent amounts based on family size.
Note: In New York City there is no rule, law, etc. that allows a landlord to increase rent based solely on the number of occupants.
Possible Legal Recourse
An owner must prove that the living conditions in the apartment have deteriorated due to the number of people in the apartment. I.e. You have 5 adults living in a one-bedroom apartment that has no living room. Yes, this does happen.
Note: Check the laws in your area about this.
1st Conclusion
So the first landlord violated federal law. The couple did not have to divorce. They should have contacted a lawyer, fought the case in tenant-landlord court. Let’s look at the second landlord.
The 2nd Landlord
This owner wanted to rent an apartment with a faulty radiator. One that he knew would start a fire. Right there, that’s enough to run not walk away from this apartment.
Next, there are holes in the wall. The floor is falling apart and the apartment needs a paint job.
Notwithstanding the holes and the floor, all apartments for rent in New York must have a new paint job before renting. The exception could be if a tenant moved in and out in a short period of time. This rarely happens.
Note: This may be different from where you live. Check your rental laws in your area.
Rent to Programs
Program rentals are time-consuming. They take more time than regular rentals. Besides all the paperwork there is the inspection. If the apartment fails the inspection the rental will not go through. In this case, this apartment would never pass inspection.
Forced to accept the apartment?
Program tenants do not have to take an apartment they do not like. They cannot sign a lease without the program’s approval.
Note: There are conditions that a program tenant can lose their voucher after agreeing to an apartment. I had such a situation. The tenant rejected the apartment after the closing because her uncle told her to do so. All checks were returned. The lease was broken and the tenant lost her voucher.
Deposits and Rent Payments
Programs pay the rent. This owner lied when he told the tenant that he had to pay the rent. He lied again when he told the tenant he had to leave a deposit. As stated in my article Program Tenants Are Entitled To The Security Deposits, programs no longer pay security deposits. They use vouchers. When programs did pay security it was at the closing.
2nd Conclusion
This tenant did not know his rights. He did not know how programs worked. His caseworker should have caught all this but somehow didn’t.
Update
I spoke to the sister recently. She informed me that her brother found a better apartment. Section 8 rejected the apartment. The security deposit was returned to her brother.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and nothing stated here is legal advice. This article applies to the five boroughs of New York. All information deemed accurate but not guaranteed. Always check the real estate laws in your part of the country.
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