Q: My partner and I dwell in a rent-stabilized one-bedroom condominium in Manhattan. We’re each on the lease. Our good associates are transferring away from town, and their college-age son shall be staying in our condominium as a house base throughout faculty breaks. Our landlord not too long ago put in a safety digicam within the foyer, which we name the spy cam. The owner has requested neighbors about their company after they had been caught on digicam. I do know we’ll get requested about our associates’ son. What are our rights? Do I must reply the owner’s questions? Are there limitations on how lengthy somebody can stick with us?
A: As a rent-stabilized tenant, you may have company for short-term durations. However your landlord will possible have questions.
“There isn’t a motive for the tenants to not inform the owner that the college-age son of shut associates shall be staying as their visitor throughout a lot of his faculty breaks,” mentioned Arlene F. Boop, a lawyer who represents tenants.
In your state of affairs, the place you and your partner are each on the lease and are each dwelling there, state regulation signifies that you just can not tackle one other “roommate,” although there may be some ambiguity right here. On the whole, the distinction between a visitor and a roommate or subtenant is {that a} visitor isn’t transferring in furnishings and doesn’t pay hire.
Typically, company should keep for lower than 30 days at a time, however there isn’t any rule prohibiting the variety of instances a visitor can keep in anybody 12 months, Ms. Boop mentioned. Landlords, usually on alert for violations, can ask about any occupants sharing the unit, and the questions should be answered inside 30 days, she mentioned. (Additionally, the digicam is authorized, so long as it’s not pointed into anybody’s condominium.)
“A landlord could also be involved about relations who may then set up a declare of succession if the tenants of document moved or of an unpermitted subtenant,” she mentioned. “And a landlord who sees somebody new coming and going right into a unit wouldn’t know that individual’s state of affairs.”
Nevertheless, your landlord most likely doesn’t wish to spend the money and time pursuing authorized motion on this state of affairs, “by which the tenant is merely having a daily visitor stick with them,” mentioned Steven Ben Gordon, a lawyer who represents tenants.
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