Q: We reside in a penthouse condominium with a wraparound roof terrace in a massive significant-increase in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Two weeks in the past, a upkeep crew arrived unannounced to erect an massive gantry on the terrace in order to entry windows beneath that need repairs. We were being instructed the function would acquire a couple times, but they’re nowhere in the vicinity of completed. Considering that the crews have to have access to our condominium to attain the terrace, they arrive and go at all hours, in some cases arriving just before we are out of bed, and traipse as a result of all day. Whilst they get the job done, we have no privacy until we reduce all the blinds and sit in the darkish. The workers do not regularly use masks, and balked at my questions about their vaccination position. Can we established any boundaries?
A: A landlord is entitled to reasonable obtain to a tenant’s condominium, with sufficient discover, to conduct necessary upkeep. Work on facades or windows would undoubtedly slide into that group, according to Jennifer Rozen, the managing legal professional of the Rozen Law Group in Manhattan.
“The housing servicing code provides wide leeway to landlords to access apartments,” Ms. Rozen explained.
But there are limitations. Your condominium can’t be turned into a lasting staging location, and you are undoubtedly entitled to peace and tranquil before you get out of mattress in the early morning. You are also entitled to set boundaries about masking during a pandemic, particularly in gentle of the Omicron variant.
“You can unquestionably lay some parameters,” Ms. Rozen reported. “They cannot be coming in and out to the place wherever you primarily come to be constructively evicted.”
You are possibly entitled to a hire abatement for the months that you are inconvenienced. Create a letter to the landlord, or hire a law firm to generate a person on your behalf. In the letter, lay out your calls for: You want the workers to stick to a plan that performs for you and your household you want them to stick to Covid protection safety measures and you want a hire abatement for the inconvenience.
Inform the landlord that you will withhold hire right until a ideal arrangement can be attained, which will absolutely get their attention. Remind them that you are enthusiastic to get this work done, much too, as you’d like to regain use of the terrace as quickly as attainable.
You are in a sturdy position suitable now, as the eviction moratorium is even now in effect by Jan. 15. Even if evictions resume, the backlog of conditions will be tremendous, and you will be at the back again of that line. “People are safer now more than they at any time have been when it arrives to withholding their lease or refusing obtain,” Ms. Rozen mentioned.
With that assurance, you can hold your ground until finally your problems are achieved.
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