Q: I didn’t know that the rent-stabilized constructing the place I stay had been offered till I obtained a textual content message from an unknown quantity telling me to pay my hire through Venmo or Zelle. Moments later, a stranger knocked at my door and launched himself as a consultant of the brand new proprietor. He refused to reveal the proprietor’s identification and informed me I might mail my test to a publish workplace field if I didn’t wish to pay hire digitally. I used to be left feeling shocked, susceptible and betrayed by the earlier landlord. Was there no obligation to tell tenants that the constructing had been offered, and to confirm the brand new landlord’s identification on our behalf? Shouldn’t we now have obtained discover?
A: Don’t ship your hire test to a random publish workplace field or an nameless Venmo account or to anybody who can not show that they symbolize your new landlord.
“I might by no means ship anybody cash that I don’t know, if I don’t have proof that they’re really entitled to the cash,” stated Bradley S. Silverbush, a Manhattan lawyer who represents landlords. If the request is fraudulent, “you’re by no means going to get that again, OK?”
As a matter of courtesy, your landlord ought to have informed you that the constructing offered, and offered you with details about the brand new administration. The brand new proprietor, nonetheless, should register the constructing with each the town and the state, disclosing the names and enterprise addresses of the individual approved to handle it, in addition to the proprietor or whoever is permitted to behave on the proprietor’s behalf. It is best to be capable to discover this data on the town’s Division of Housing Preservation and Improvement web site, in addition to on state information, because it’s a rent-stabilized constructing. Monetary knowledge in regards to the sale must be accessible on the Automated Metropolis Register Info System.
However it’s not your job or duty to seek out this data. You might be entitled to know that you’re paying hire to the right entity, and whom you must contact with any issues along with your house. Insist that the one that contacted you show that they symbolize the proprietor. Withhold hire till you might be proven adequate documentation to show that you’re certainly paying your landlord.
Speak to your neighbors, too. Kind a tenants’ affiliation, if one doesn’t exist already. “In case you’re confronted with this, your neighbors are additionally confronted with it,” stated Andrew Scherer, a professor at New York Legislation College and the co-director of the Housing Justice Management Institute. “Act collectively on one thing like this. There’s clearly security in numbers.”
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