What Are the Consequences If Landlords Fail to Maintain a Residential Building?

Tenants are constantly complaining about the repairs that their landlords fail to make, but if you get far enough into the suburbs that there is no subway transportation, you will find out that the situation is not exactly rosy for homeowners, either.  The ugly truth is that home repairs are expensive.  If you are fixing your own house or condo unit, it is your decision alone how bothersome the leaky faucet or broken air conditioning gets before you decide to fix it.  You might decide to get through the summer by taking cold showers to stay cool and turning on background music to help you not notice the sound of the dripping faucet.  It is also your decision how to pay for it.  You can take out a home equity loan, apply for a personal loan from the bank, borrow from a friend, or raise funds through a side hustle.  What can landlords do when tenants need repairs that the landlords can’t afford?  For that matter, what can tenants do when landlords keep charging them rent as the condition of the property gets progressively worse?  If you are struggling with a barrage of complaints from tenants and creditors while your rental properties are in disrepair, contact a Bronx real estate attorney.

When Conditions in the Building Are Unlivable, but Landlords Cannot Afford to Pay for Repairs

The presence of a poorly maintained building in the Bronx is nothing new, nor are the vociferous complaints of tenants.  The elevator has been broken since last summer and you have to climb six flights of stairs to get to your apartment?  It’s just another day in New York.  Black mold on the walls?  We call that Bronx décor, and we salute it with a Bronx cheer.  Things got so bad at one building that the courts converted it to a tenant-owned building, but this was only the final step of a long process, and it is only one of many possible ways for the story to end.  Before things got to that point, the tenants tried to transfer ownership of the building to a nonprofit organization, but the city’s third party transfer program was suspended before they could finalize that action.

Meanwhile, the landlords’ financial problems went beyond the inability to maintain the rental units in livable conditions; they also fell behind on mortgage payments.  The only reason that the bank did not foreclose on the property was that the landlords filed for bankruptcy before the foreclosure case could progress.  The moral of the story is that you should contact a lawyer before the situation in your real estate properties gets that bad.

Schedule a Confidential Consultation With a Bronx Real Estate Attorney

A real estate lawyer can help you find a way to afford repairs and negotiate with creditors if you are in financial distress and your tenants are complaining about their living conditions.  Contact Cavallo & Cavallo in the Bronx, New York to set up a consultation.

Sources:

abc7ny.com/davidson-avenue-bronx-building-lawsuit-hazardous-conditions/14493137/

cbsnews.com/newyork/news/this-is-real-we-did-it-bronx-tenants-become-their-own-landlord/