My bedroom celing caved in. Now what do I do?

I’m renting an apartment in a two-family house in Brooklyn. About three months ago, the landlord upped and moved to another country to help take care of an ailing parent. They got some friends (who are wonderful people, BTW) to come and stay in their apartment and handle some of the landlord duties. It is to these friends we deliver the rent check every month. I live on the lower level and this other couple lives upstairs.

Anyway, it was raining all day Friday here in New York and continued all day Saturday.

On Friday night, I went up to their apartment. While there, I see that they have buckets in several places on the floor. As it turns out the roof leaks, and in fact, has leaked since before the landlord moved out.

Later that night, my wife hears something dripping in our room. Sure enough, there is a dripping coming from the ceiling by the corner closest to my bed. Plink. Plink. Plink. Not a good sign. This never happened before, and we’ve been here two years. We put some pails under it and went back to sleep, intending to let the neighbors know about it once Shabbos was over.

Saturday afternoon, after the Shabbos meal, my wife and I go to take a nap. At about 5:00 in the afternoon, my wife and I are awakened by a large crash. Part of the ceiling has collapsed. And it’s still dripping.

After Shabbos we inform our neighbors of what has happened. Unfortunately, I know that if he has leaks in his roof (and according to him, they’ve been there since they moved in) then the chances of getting my problem fixed in a hurry is remote.

In short, the roof needs some major work. It would probably be pointless to fix my ceiling before the roof gets done, as the damage would probably just happen again. The landlords have known about the roof for a while already, but due to a shortage of funds (they are in some financial trouble where they are) I don’t know the immediate prospects of getting it fixed.

One solution might be to hold back on the rent, but I’m reluctant to do that at this moment. My lease is up this month; and I really don’t want to move. I’m hoping that in all the chaos of their moving, the landlord will forget that I’m due for a rent increase, which I really can’t afford at the moment. So, in short, I’m afraid that if I start a rent strike, he’ll look at his calendar and, once everything is fixed, demand a huge rent increase (which, due to the housing market here in Brooklyn, he may just get from someone else). However, I really don’t want to go another month or two with a hole in my bedroom ceiling.

Any ideas?

Zev Steinhardt

… and it would help if I could spell “ceiling” correctly… :rolleyes:

Zev Steinhardt

Wow! 2 landlord-tenant disputes in on day.

The City undoubtly has an office which could render a decision in a couple of years.

The priorty now is to cover the roof - if only with visqueen (sp) - thick poly sheets. As long a water is getting in, patching the damage will do no good.
In fact, the more water, the greater the risk of electrical short.
Maybe offer to pay for the poly sheeting and deduct the cost from the rent?

Note: if you have no experience with sheeting a pitched roof, a water-damaged (read: possibly rotten) roof is not the place to learn. Hire it out.

Once the roof is waterproof, you can maybe use additional rent payments to repair the ceiling damage?

(be careful about fixing it up just in time to make it attractive to a new tenant :wink: )

I don’t know if rent strikes are legal in NY. But that’s where I would start, and if you can legally do so, do it. Don’t worry about a future rent increase. Plan to be gone by then. Put the rent money away for a security deposit and moving expenses toward a new place.

If you can’t legally withhold rent, DO NOT SIGN A NEW LEASE with the place in this condition. Your landlord should be delighted to let you go month-to-month rather than move out on the spot.

Frankly, I think there is ZERO chance of the owners repairing this anytime soon, if they didn’t fix it while they were living under the drips.

Move out!

I agree with yojimboguy, you leverage is not signing a lease until the damage has been fixed (not just your ceiling, but the roof, which is the real cause of the problem). They will never be able to rent the apartment to anyone else in that condition. I lived in NY a long time ago, but at that time you could withold rent and put in in an escrow account (earning interest) if something like this happened. If NYPIRG still exists, they may have info.

Move, like it or not.

This place is not a safe place to live.