Tenant Law
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New York Landlord Takes Over Sections of Residential BuildingFriday, June 20, 2008
In the New York Times on June 15th, there was a story by Marc Santora (link) about a young landlord (only 37) and his family, trying to turn a big apartment building in the East Village into a mansion. The only problem for the Economakis family was that most of the tenants in the 15 units had rent control and were willing to fight to keep their homes.
This story is instructive for S.F. tenants in large buildings because there is the possibility of this happening to them. Usually landlords will use the Ellis Act, which means they have to remove the building from the rental market for 5 years. Often the landlord will then sell the individual units as a Tenancy in Common. The owner of Skyy Vodka is known to have taken over a whole property in S.F. and turned it into his family's home. It is so unjust how some of these greedy landlords could care less about their tenant's long-term homes, all for the mighty dollar. Some people just can never get enough money.
[T]hese dreams have turned into a five-year nightmare including three court rulings, the most recent from the State Court of Appeals this month; countless letters written by lawyers; dueling Web sites; and dozens of skirmishes over the use of air-conditioners and the positioning of flowerpots. The Economakises reached financial settlements with six of the original occupants, turning those units into a three-story space for themselves and a duplex for guests. Now that the Court of Appeals has sent the case back to housing court, lawyers estimate a resolution could still be two years away.
At its core, the fight involves a law allowing landlords to displace rent-stabilized tenants if the landlords will use the space as their primary residence. The Economakis family has prevailed, thus far, on the principle that the law applies even to a building this large. But the tenants continue to press the notion that given the scope of the proposed home — which calls for seven bathrooms, a gym and a library — the owners are just trying to clear them out so they can sell the building off to become so many market-rate condos.
This story is instructive for S.F. tenants in large buildings because there is the possibility of this happening to them. Usually landlords will use the Ellis Act, which means they have to remove the building from the rental market for 5 years. Often the landlord will then sell the individual units as a Tenancy in Common. The owner of Skyy Vodka is known to have taken over a whole property in S.F. and turned it into his family's home. It is so unjust how some of these greedy landlords could care less about their tenant's long-term homes, all for the mighty dollar. Some people just can never get enough money.
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