Okay, here’s the deal. My aunt is not well. She’s been living in the same place in NYC for nearly forty years. We recently had gotten some calls from a friend who lives in the same building as her. There is some memory loss. Some of the siblings made an emergency run to NYC and got her into the doctor who recommended assisted living. So she’s moving back to Wisconsin to be closer to family. The problem is that the $2500 a month assisted living place is going to eat into her meager savings quite quickly, because she had been paying…
$785 for an alcove-type apartment in Murray Hill.
We are hoping that we will be able to sub-let her apartment to offset the assisted living cost. But don’t know a lot of what stipulations are around rent-control in NYC.
I’d really recommend talking with a lawyer in New York who knows something about rent-control laws. This is the kind of situation where I’d be really leery of taking advice from random people on a message board.
I’m gonna agree with Anne. This one’s too specific and sounds a bit complicated. You need a New York lawyer. Sorry. The Board generally frowns on specific requests for medical or legal advice.
I’ve been convinced by a poster who lives in NYC and has experience in such matters that this one can remain open for now. I’d cautiion people who DO NOT HAVE EXPERIENCE with the laws concerning this matter to please refrain from merely posting your opinions.
If you wish to provide links that will help the OP, that’s great. If you personally have been involved in this kind of situation, then please offer your advice.
I’d also like to caution Hey you! to take everything he/she reads in this thread with some skepticism. Just being prudent.
No experience in this matter, but here is the subletting FAQ from the New York City Rent Guidelines Board website, although it’s talking about rent-stabilized apartments. (Are they the same thing?)
I live in a rent-stabilized (not rent-controlled, like the OP, but close) apt in NYC, and I sublet it for a while. This was a number of years ago, so things may have changed, but the rules for my situation were basically this:
Generally, the landlord could not prohibit the sublet, but he had to be notified of the details.
The “automatic” sublet could last up to six months; beyond that the landlord had to give his permission, and may even have been entitled to some rent increase.
The tenant could only charge the sub-lesee the *same amount * he/she is paying the landlord. (There was some small leeway in this – for example, the tenant was entitled to some piddily percentage beyond the current rent for their furniture wear-and-tear.)
NOTE: Rule #3 is violated often by opportunistic tenants with controlled/stabilized apartments that are locked in at below-market rates. But the tenants do it at their peril! If the landlord finds out you’re skimming profits from your sub-lesee, he/she can boot the tenant’s ass out.
I want to be mindful of the Mod’s justified concerns regarding specific advice, so I would advise Hey you! to use my experience only as a rough starting point. The OP should seek accurate, up-to-date guidance from the experts and the resouces they offer. Fortunately for him/her, we NYCers take the defense of our tenant’s right very seriously, so such information and links to tenant legal resources (many of them free) should be a snap to find online. (Look for things like, “The Tenant’s Bill of Rights for New Yorkers.”) You might start at the website nyc.gov and root around for agencies that deal with housing matters.
From the above-linked site, I found this, the location of the District Rent Office for the neighborhood mentioned in the OP. I say, give 'em a call!
**NYS District Rent Office for Manhattan Lower **
(South side of 110th Street and below)
25 Beaver Street - 5th Floor
New York, New York 10004
(212) 480-6700
I just looked at an online listing: the market rate for studio apartments in Murray Hill looks like between $1800 and $2500 a month; one-bedrooms go from $2000 up to $5000. Yikes.
To add to the above, I meant to say that I’m sorry to hear about your aunt’s illness, but she’s very lucky to have people who are looking after her. My girlfriend is a paramedic in the city, and that’s not always the case.