Q: We dwell in a penthouse condominium with a wraparound roof terrace in a big high-rise in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Two weeks in the past, a upkeep crew arrived unannounced to erect an unlimited gantry on the terrace with the intention to entry home windows beneath that want repairs. We have been informed the work would take just a few days, however they’re nowhere close to completed. Because the crews require entry to our condominium to achieve the terrace, they arrive and go in any respect hours, typically arriving earlier than we’re off the bed, and traipse by way of all day. Whereas they work, we’ve got no privateness until we decrease all of the blinds and sit in the dead of night. The employees don’t constantly put on masks, and balked at my questions on their vaccination standing. Can we set any limits?
A: A landlord is entitled to cheap entry to a tenant’s condominium, with enough discover, to carry out crucial upkeep. Work on facades or home windows would definitely fall into that class, based on Jennifer Rozen, the managing lawyer of the Rozen Legislation Group in Manhattan.
“The housing upkeep code offers broad leeway to landlords to entry flats,” Ms. Rozen mentioned.
However there are limits. Your condominium can’t be became a everlasting staging space, and you might be definitely entitled to peace and quiet earlier than you get off the bed within the morning. You might be additionally entitled to set limits about masking throughout a pandemic, particularly in gentle of the Omicron variant.
“You’ll be able to undoubtedly lay some parameters,” Ms. Rozen mentioned. “They will’t be coming out and in to the purpose the place you primarily grow to be constructively evicted.”
You might be most likely entitled to a hire abatement for the weeks that you’re inconvenienced. Write a letter to the owner, or rent a lawyer to jot down one in your behalf. Within the letter, lay out your calls for: You need the employees to stay to a schedule that works for you and your loved ones; you need them to observe Covid security precautions; and also you need a hire abatement for the inconvenience.
Inform the owner that you’ll withhold hire till an acceptable settlement might be reached, which will definitely get their consideration. Remind them that you’re motivated to get this work carried out, too, as you’d prefer to regain use of the terrace as quickly as attainable.
You might be in a powerful place proper now, because the eviction moratorium remains to be in impact by way of Jan. 15. Even when evictions resume, the backlog of circumstances can be large, and you can be behind that line. “Individuals are safer now greater than they ever have been with regards to withholding their hire or refusing entry,” Ms. Rozen mentioned.
With that assurance, you may maintain your floor till your situations are met.
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