Although the 2021-2022 winter season has been very mild so far, New Yorkers should not feel too comfortable, as winter is not over yet! Winters in New York can be brutal. Between traveling on outdoor subway platforms and watching your footsteps navigate New York`s unshovelled sidewalks, cold temperatures are at home. According to New York City`s heating laws, your landlord must provide enough heating and hot water. Read below for more information about the laws of heat in New York and your remedies if you`re in a situation where your home isn`t getting enough heat. If you find yourself in the unfortunate situation where your landlord has violated New York`s heating laws and continues to break the rules, you have a few options. While you are technically allowed legally to withhold rent, tenants should be cautious in pursuing this appeal. In particular, your landlord could turn around and sue you for non-payment of rent if you withhold rent in full or pay only part of the rent. In this case, however, you have the legal right to file a counterclaim due to the owner`s breach of the habitability warranty. In this case, the court will order a rent reduction if you are legally entitled to it. Unfortunately, it may take a few days for an inspector to arrive, and by that time, the outside temperature may have risen or the heat or hot water may finally have increased. Especially in the fall and spring, when outside temperatures vary greatly, you may need to call several times before a DPH inspector finds a violation. But a breach serves as solid evidence of your heating problems. Hiram, we recommend that you carefully read the statutes and/or internal regulations of the cooperative.
Just as a landlord can require a tenant to have tenant insurance and designate the landlord as an additional insured, it is certainly possible for a board of directors of a co-op to require a shareholder to designate the co-op corporation as an additional insured. We don`t know if this is a law, please consult your lawyer or one of our partner lawyers, but it is certainly something a cooperative board of directors may require according to their bylaws/internal rules! My lower apartment has done a major renovation throughout her apartment and after she complains a lot that she has a lot of noise in her apartment from my apartment which is just above her. She went to the management and insisted on putting carpet in my apartment, but I don`t have a small child in my house. We are a couple and 21st grade and 15 year old 2 girls in my house. Even a small drop on the floor, she immediately complained to our super and complained. Can you please indicate what the actual rules are for noise in the co-op and even though we are almost all adults staying in my apartment, can she still insist that we install the carpet? Because New York City has both scorching summers and freezing winters, most renters struggle with year-round temperature issues in their apartments. Although the law offers limited protection during the warmer months, the city has fairly strict heat laws from October to May. Despite these strong legal protections, hundreds of thousands of tenants complain of a lack of heating and hot water each winter. In 2017, New York City tightened its heating laws by extending the length of the “hot season” and increasing indoor temperature requirements. Here`s a glimpse! The building is heated nine hours a day – while my mother constantly complains about being cold in her apartment.
Is it efficient air conditioning? Money no longer seems to play a role in the co-op where she lives. I`m sure every co-op owner or manager knows how to save money. There is a heating law, but shouldn`t all cooperatives comply with it? Changes to Local Law 86, due to come into force on October 1, 2017, are expected to increase fuel costs and put increased pressure on heating systems. During the designated heating season – October 1 to May 31 – residential buildings must now maintain an indoor temperature of at least 62 degrees Fahrenheit overnight from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. instead of the current minimum of 55 degrees. In addition, the new minimum no longer depends on how cold it is outside. This is a change from the current law, which states that the 55-degree minimum is only triggered when outside temperatures fall below 40 degrees. The minimum internal temperature, which is required during the day between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., remains at 68 degrees. Stricter heating rules likely won`t have much impact on high-end condos, co-ops and other multi-unit buildings, according to Mitchell Ingerman, president of Aurora Energy Advisors.
“We don`t think they`ll make these buildings that cold,” he says, adding that it`s too early to know definitively whether the new rules will increase fuel consumption and costs. The changes “were more likely aimed at slum lords who wouldn`t provide [enough] heating, and it will give residents a way to call 311 to say they`re breaking the law,” said Mark Levine, a director at EBMG Management, which operates nearly 100 buildings in the five counties. However, building owners need to be more vigilant about preventative maintenance of boilers and related equipment to protect themselves from breakdowns. The increased pressure on heating systems, which are not used to maintaining temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees, will likely lead to increased service calls during the heating season. Marie Rossillo, president of a 149-unit co-op in Brooklyn`s Windsor Terrace neighborhood, said she doesn`t expect to have to increase preventative maintenance because of the rule changes. His building, which installed a dual-fuel system in 1998, typically schedules maintenance twice a year – before turning on the heat in October and shutting it down at the end of May. Doug Weinstein, vice president of operations at Akam Associates, which manages 200 condos and co-op buildings across the city, recommends that as a precaution, buildings install a chimney thermometer that measures the temperature of exhaust gases coming out of boilers. Rising temperatures indicate that soot is accumulating on the cleaning surfaces of a boiler, reducing heat transfer and making it less efficient. Another step Akam has taken in several of its buildings is the transition from an outdoor weather head to a more sophisticated system that uses indoor sensors in public spaces and some homes that more accurately read indoor temperatures. Therefore, Weinstein says, “We get stricter compliance because you`re actually measuring the indoor temperatures that regulations are based on.