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HPD has officially adopted amendments to Administrative Code Section 27-2005, which governs procedures during suspected gas leaks and recordkeeping for smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms. As a result of adopting the amendments and finalizing the proposed rule, HPD has formally adopted the requirements of Local Law 153 of 2016, the law that requires owners to notify residential tenants about proper procedures to follow in the event of a suspected gas leak. The law itself became effective as of June 4, 2017, and HPD’s new rules went into effect on Oct. 18.

Tenants often have pets that cause problems. For example, a tenant’s dog may relieve itself in the building’s hallways, bark at all hours of the day and night, or threaten other tenants. You can get rid of problem pets, whether or not the tenant’s lease bars pets. To do so, you must begin an eviction case against the tenant and prove that the pet creates what’s known legally as a “nuisance.” This means that the pet is a threat to the health, safety, or welfare of the other tenants in your building.

If you sue to evict a tenant in housing court for a reason other than nonpayment of rent (such as nonprimary residence), the law says you’re entitled to what’s known as “use and occupancy” (U & O). Getting U & O while your case is pending is critical, since eviction cases can drag on for a long time. And during this time you still must pay the expenses to run your building.

Suppose you sign an initial lease with a rent-stabilized tenant and require the tenant to get a guarantor to guarantee payment of the rent. At renewal time, the tenant returns the renewal lease without the guarantor’s signature. According to the DHCR and a housing court case, you are not required to sign the renewal lease and risk having to deal with a tenant who can’t afford to pay the rent.

When a Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) inspector visits your building in response to a tenant’s complaint, the inspector won’t simply check the problem the tenant has complained about. The inspector will also check the tenant’s apartment for six defects that HPD considers emergency conditions. If the inspector finds any of these six defects, the HPD will issue a violation against you for them.

No owner likes to get hit with a rent overcharge order. And it’s worse if the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) orders you to pay triple damages on top of that. But the DHCR shouldn’t hit you with triple damages in every case where it finds an overcharge. If you can prove that the overcharge was “not willful,” you can escape triple damages.

Many tenants take advantage of rent control and rent stabilization laws to use their apartments as a low-cost second home. They actually live elsewhere, but keep their New York City apartments for business or pleasure. As an owner, you don’t have to stand by as these tenants unfairly reap the benefits of rent control or rent stabilization. You can take action because unless a tenant uses his New York City apartment as his primary residence, he’s not entitled to either rent control or rent stabilization protections.

A managing agent is designated by an owner to be in control of and responsible for the maintenance and operation of the building and to authorize, on behalf of the owner, the correction of any emergency conditions or the making of any emergency repairs. A managing agent must be an individual over age 21 and must reside in the city or customarily and regularly attend a business office maintained within the city. An owner or corporate officer who meets the qualifications may be designated to serve and can be registered as the managing agent.

In August 2016, the NYC Commission on Human Rights entered into a settlement agreement with an owner for alleged age discrimination. A rent-stabilized tenant had filed a complaint against a large real estate management company because the company opened an exercise room in the building and allowed only market-rate tenants, and not rent-regulated tenants, to use the gym. The tenant claimed that the gym’s usage policy barring rent-regulated tenants had a disparate impact on older residents in the building.

If you’re planning to do work at your building and expect to get a major capital improvement (MCI) rent increase for it, you probably know that the work must meet the Division of Housing and Community Renewal’s (DHCR) useful life requirements. Those requirements are set out in Section 2522.4 of the Rent Stabilization Code (RSC). But what if you need to replace something before its useful life has expired? For example, say your building’s roof collapses before its useful life expires and you need to install a new roof.