In Tom Wolf’s novel “The Bonfire of the Vanities”, there is a brief discussion of the practice of (illegally) subletting a rent controlled property.In such a scheme, let us say that the market rent for the place might be $2000/month. However, it is leased to a long term tenant at a rent that was fixed in 1960 ($200/month).
The tenant realizes that he can sublet the place and make a lot of money-how would the landlord find this out?
Is this practice widspread in NYC?
I recall reading about a similar thing in Cambridge , MA-a young couple bought a two family house-intending to live in one unit, and rent the other. Unfortnately for them, the other nit was under rent control-and at a rent so low that they could not pay their mortgage.
Landlords can find out in many ways. I would say that the two most common are:
- there’s a noise complaint and a manager responds
- some kind of maintenance requires the landlord to enter the unit*
It’s really not that hard if you have a resident manager who pays attention and makes sure to know the names and faces of everyone in the building. It would be harder to tell if it was a single-family property rather than an apartment complex… but even a drive-by survey of vehicles and license plates could tell you a lot about who lives there.
- Here’s a great story: the state often subsidized rent for low-income individuals, but had rules that no one else could stay there more than 2 nights a week. A single guy is on the lease. I got called up to repair a sink and fished out long hair (not even his color) and had to move the box of tampons. I’m guessing she stayed over more than twice a week.