Q: I live in a floor-ground, hire-stabilized condominium in Harlem, with a window in the living space and an additional in the bedroom. For yrs, the security bars on the two windows lacked unexpected emergency egress and room for a window-unit air-conditioner. I asked for emergency egress for the bed room window and a gate to accommodate air-conditioning in the residing space, but when the landlord changed the building’s home windows, he place an crisis gate in the dwelling place window and common bars in the bed room window, so neither accommodates air-conditioning. I’m trapped with a moveable air-conditioner, which is substantially far more high priced than a window device. Can I compel the landlord to put in bars that enable for air-conditioning?
A: Your ask for may appear to be straightforward: If the landlord is setting up new gates for the home windows, why not only set up the type the tenant has asked for? But couple points about New York’s rent regulation principles are straightforward.
“The law tends to make it complicated for the landlord to accommodate the tenant’s request,” mentioned Peter A. Schwartz, a true estate attorney who specializes in rent stabilization and hire handle, and a companion in the Manhattan legislation company Graubard Miller.
Because you are living in a rent-stabilized condominium, your landlord is not permitted to choose absent any provider that you beforehand been given without compensating you, and he is not necessary to increase any assistance until the law needs it, Mr. Schwartz stated.
So, if you experienced bars on your home windows before, the landlord would have to restore them. And if you hardly ever had bars designed to accommodate a window device, he almost certainly would not want to increase them simply because it would indicate that, likely forward, he would often have to put in them. Your landlord probably heeded your request for the emergency gate because that poses a protection hazard and is a probable violation of the metropolis fire code. But he probably appeared at your ask for for the air-conditioning and saw a headache down the line.
Sadly, you might be in a circumstance exactly where your very best selection for cooling is the transportable air-conditioner, regardless of its included price. I know that is disappointing as the metropolis encounters substantial temperatures.
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