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notice to cure deadline missed!!!

NYC Rent Regulation: Rent Control/Rent Stabilized, DHCR Practice/Procedures

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notice to cure deadline missed!!!

Postby sheilaanderson » Mon Apr 09, 2018 3:16 am

Hi,

My landlord has a 2-year lease for my NYC rent-stabilized apartment. That is, he should have it. All of a sudden apparently he thinks he doesn't I guess, because today I just found out that they sent me a notice to cure to sign a new lease about a month ago.

I have not checked the mailbox in all that time, because the mailbox was jammed and the super never fixes anything. Also, I was going to pay to have the mailbox fixed myself, instead of relying on the super (who if he did it at all was likely to do it badly). But I was waiting until I could afford to hire someone to fix the mailbox. I wasn't too worried about having it done immediately, because I never get important mail. I pay all my bills on or before the due date (except currently I am a couple of months behind in rent), and my loved ones send me emails.

Before this period I have never missed rent payments. I missed a couple of months this summer, but have recommenced paying monthly, and I was just about to pay one of the extra months I owe this week actually.

The notice to cure says I must sign a new lease "on or before September 26"!!! Or that the landlord "will elect to commence suit"!!!!

Will they? Is it very likely that they will evict me?

As I said, I signed a 2-year lease effective through August 31, 2017. They must have lost it!

I called them immediately today, but it was Friday at 6 pm, so of course they were closed. I'm so anxious I can't think or do any work.

I spoke to a lawyer online at Just Answer, who says that they are unlikely to try to evict because I missed a notice to cure deadline by a week.

If that is so, however, why would they pretend to have lost the original lease?

If they did lose it, why wait till now (it has been several months) to inform me of it?

Aside from this notice to cure, I have received nothing else. No phone calls, no other mail, etc.

But I went online today to try and pay rent, and I was blocked from making payments. The management office also did not send me a "It is time to pay your rent!" reminder this month, something which has never happened before. These 2 things, and the date on the notice to cure, are what are driving me crazy at the moment. :cry:
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Re: notice to cure deadline missed!!!

Postby TenantNet » Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:21 am

You have a lease (not the LL). Or more technically, both you and the LL entered into a lease.

LLs are required to make an offer for a renewal lease to tenants in RS units 90-150 days before a lease expires. Was what you got a real "Notice to Cure" or something else? A NTC makes no sense. Notices to Cure are predicate notices to holdover cases, not to remind a tenant to sign a lease.

As for the so-called Notice to Cure, get to know the order and timing on how this all works. Best explanation is on the reverse side of DHCR's form RTP-8 here: http://www.nyshcr.org/Forms/Rent/rtp8.pdf

I would start making a habit of checking your mailbox. That's on you. And being late on rent can prompt a LL to take you to court, but it's a separate issue than the lease. Don't mix things up.

I would mail rent by check to the LL by certified mail (and make copies of everything). What is important is that you sent it and that you can prove you tendered it.

Your post doesn't make a lot of sense. You say the then-current lease was to expire on August 31, 2017, but you just posted this on April 9, 2018, seven months later. And then you say you're only a week late in signing things?

Most LLs would have hauled you into court a long time ago for lease non-renewal.

Can you give us an accurate timeline?

I wouldn't necessarily rely on Just Answer for NYC landlord-tenant issues, but they are correct that a LL might not pull the trigger after only a week. But again, the dates in your post make no sense. This is April 2018. not August 2017.

But to assuage your concerns, if a tenant misses the 60-day "deadline" to accept a renewal offer, it's not the end of the world. Depending on the real timeline going on here, it might seem advisable to accept the offer, make copies and return it to the LL by certified mail.

That way if the LL does haul you into court, you can say, "yes, I was late, but when I got the notice I did accept and return it to the LL." I don't know any court in NYC that would evict a tenant even if late.
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