Update: Housing (Again)

I have made several trips to my councilperson's office regarding my weird rent increase so far. These fruitless subway trips are becoming costly!

I made my first trip on Monday, but instead of seeing me, they made me sign up for an appointment for today -- why didn't they just have me make an appointment when I was speaking to them on the phone?

So I returned today and had to wait for an hour for my 11am appointment. While I waited, I sat around listening to everyone speaking in Spanish, and resolved to spend an hour every day working on improving my Spanish. After I got tired of worrying about my Spanish, I got my laptop out and discovered that there were three open wifi connections available -- unfortunately, all were incredibly unstable.

Then I finally (finally!) got to talk to Rita Gomez, the constituent liaison for my city councilman. Her office that was no larger than a walk-in closet, so we were quite cozy while discussing the issues I am having with my landlord. As promised, she called the landlord to ask them what the "rent increase" was about, but they refused to tell her, too! Wow. After waiting on the phone for nearly 30 minutes for the landlord or one of his staff people to tell her what this rent increase was for, she finally hung up. She is decided to write a letter to the landlord, instead. She advised me to write a letter (as I have been doing) and to send it to the landlord by certified mail and to also go to the city's Division of Housing and Community Renewal to file more paperwork (and complaints) there.

This time, when I file the paperwork, I will include my other two complaints in the letter; first, there are vermin (cockroaches and mice) in my apartment and second; two years ago, the landlord charged us another rent increase to replace the boiler. This temporary rent increase was supposed to be removed after four years' time, but the landlord conveniently combined that charge into the rent instead of listing it as a separate fee from our rent on our monthly invoices, as he is supposed to do. As a result, all rent increases are based on this combined rent and temporary boiler payment. I am not sure this is legal. Further, because this fee is not separate from the boiler fee, my fear is that the landlord is never going to remove the boiler fee from our rent bill and, after the boiler has been paid off in another two years' time, he will continue to charge this fee so he can pocket it as pure profit.

I did learn a little bit about the "property improvements" process for rent-stabilized apartments in NYC. First, my mysterious rent increase was probably due to a property improvement, instead of "fixing up my apartment" as the landlord's staff person erroneously told me a week ago. Second, the landlord is required to file paperwork with the city's housing department regarding all proposed improvements to the property and their costs and he must notify all residents in writing of these proposed improvements before they are done, and allow the residents 30 days to respond in writing to these improvements. (My landlord did not do this).

I am not sure what happens after this .. what must happen to prevent the landlord from making these improvements if the residents don't want them? What is the landlord reasonably expected to pay for as part of his normal property maintenance costs versus what must the tenants pay for above the cost of their rent?