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Unable to contact management company ...

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Unable to contact management company ...

Postby christew » Wed Apr 01, 2020 3:56 pm

I have an 18 month lease on an East Harlem apartment that will be ending 6/30/2020. Listed rent on the lease is $2400, preferential is $2275, we had a written agreement at signing lowering this to $2100.

From lease start through 7/2019 there were no issues and rent was collected through ClickPay. In July, we received notice that the company was switching to using REZI with instructions on how to transfer over. This came with a host of issues (including our automatically charged rent going up to $2275), but after many phone calls we finally got everything resolved. Then in October, we are informed that management company is abandoning REZI and going back to ClickPay. Lo and behold, our automatically charged rent goes back up.

Throughout these changes we have continued to pay our $2100 rent on the first of each month without fail. At this point, because of the overcharges, our balance is steadily climbing each month and is accruing late fees. The kicker is that our management company has stopped answering their phones entirely. I have called over 100 times in the last four months and have left increasingly urgent messages to no avail. As we are nearing the end of the lease, I am unsure what action to take and am very concerned about recovering our security deposit. In talking to 311 and Housing Court, the only way they can help is if I open a case against them. I'd rather avoid this hassle. I am considering sending a letter to the listed address (only contact besides useless phone#) explaining that if I don't hear from them before June 1st, I will be withholding our final months rent payment as insurance against our security deposit (then placing $2100 in escrow or something).

Any advice on what to do if you cannot contact your landlord/management company at all? I feel like this stonewall tactic should not be as effective as it is seeming ....
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Re: Unable to contact management company ...

Postby TenantNet » Wed Apr 01, 2020 4:29 pm

At the very outset, how can there be a preferential rent is the unit is not rent regulated? Please confirm if you are rent stab, or not.

Also, you should get a rent history from DHCR as it's entirely possible that the unit was illegally deregulated.

Nothing is happening in the courts right now due to the COVID-19 situation. Even if it was, you can't go after an overcharge in Housing Court, although you could raise that as a defense to a non-payment brought by the LL. To file against the LL, you would need to go to Civil or Supreme Court.
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