I live in a rent-stabilized studio apartment, and by now the hefty annual increases have pushed the rent up to where it is probably 2/3 of market value. That, of course, is not sufficient to satisfy the landlord.
It was one thing to be told when the landlord bought the building that at the rent I paid I didn’t deserve repairs, it is another thing to be harassed today with increasingly flagrant and reckless abuse.
And the harassment is ratcheted up by the maliscous buffoonery of a slick management company, behind which the landlord now hides.
A common balcony that was the property of myself and the fellow resident of the floor has not only been claimed by the landlord to be his property alone, but toxic sealant has been sprayed on the balcony, which is three feet from my window. And when heat and sun start to bake that balcony, the sealant starts to decompose into the air. And therefore I can’t open my windows.
The landlord refuses to divulge what the sealant is, but says that it is used all over NYC.
Yes, I’m sure it is–on actual rooftops, not in the direct air space of residential apartments.
And the management agency tells me that the smell is from my neighbor’s cats! Oh, and since there’s a three-foot wall round the balcony, they claim there’s no way the fumes could get into the air!
So I have been forced to spent as much time as I can outside the apartment, until the issue is resolved in court.