Jimmy McMillan may have captured the hearts and minds of New Yorkers with his "Rent Is Too Damn High" platform during last year's gubernatorial election, but his rent for a one-bedroom in the East Village is actually a Damn Sweet $872/month, thanks to rent stabilization. Now, the colorful candidate may be evicted, because his landlord wants to make the rent DAMN HIGH. more ›

Patterson wasn't the only tenant he threatened yesterday, either. A teenage boy living in Reid's Jamaica, Queens, building heard the commotion from the second floor and came out in his boxers to find Reid "bloody blade in hand." The landlord reportedly "rushed at the teen, and the boy quickly hopped a fence and called 911 from a neighbor’s home," his mother said. more ›

An ongoing dispute between a 62-year-old Queens landlord and his 48-year-old tenant turned tragic today when Eulith "Sonny" Reid reportedly bludgeoned Hettie Patterson with a machete before turning the blade on himself. Both were transported to Jamaica Hospital where they were pronounced dead. According to neighbors, Patterson may not have paid her rent in a few months—or possibly Reid was refusing to accept it in an attempt to force her out. more ›

Caffe Vivaldi on Jones Street is a throwback to a retro era in New York dining—the Italian-leaning restaurant serves live jazz with its ravioli, and has played host to a myriad of artistic Village boho types over the past 30 years. It looks like it has been and will be around forever, but it won't be, if new landlord Steve Croman gets what he wants—unless the restaurant fights its way back. more ›

Rent-stabilized apartments are generally the dominion of the politically-connected, the corrupt, the elderly, and the damn lucky, no-good relatives of those elderly. And once you're in that club, it's pretty difficult to kick you out. But one landlord has allegedly come up with a novel new way to try to get some septuagenarian rent-stabilized tenants to scram: spread rumors that they're incestuous! more ›

Yesterday, the NY Times reported that an Upper East Side landlord was suing to evict Faye Dunaway, claiming that the Oscar-winning actress was not living in her rent-stabilized, one-bedroom walkup. Now, Dunaway has left three voicemail messages with the NY Times, explaining that her landlord can't sue to evict her...'cause she's not even living there anymore. more ›

It's been a rough week for the food-obsessed: yesterday the Brooklyn Motorino was shut down, and today comes word that M. Wells, the beloved Long Island City "diner" famed for its gonzo-gourmet offerings, will close at the end of the month. more ›

The NY State Court of Appeals has decided on the years-lond dispute between landlords and their rent-stabilized tenants—the ones who pay less than $1,000/month for their apartments—over how much rents can be increased. And the court found in favor for the landlords, which means that 300,000 tenants may need to pay a lot in retroactive rent increases. more ›

At the start of the year, the white two-piece suit which John Lennon wore on the cover of Abbey Road was auctioned off by Connecticut-based Braswell Galleries, and sold for $48,000. But it later turned out that the man who sold the suit owes a lot of back rent for his former Manhattan apartment. And yesterday, a judge ruled that the gallery had to pay more than $21,000 to the landlord of that apartment. "Now he's the one screaming, 'Help, I need somebody,'" the landlord's lawyer Adam Leitman Bailey quipped painfully. more ›

It's cold out there, if you hadn't noticed. And when it's cold, we'll forgive our radiator for the 6 a.m. wake-up call because we're just thankful the heat is on. But for many people across the city that's not the case, and City Council wants to do something about it. In new legislation debated by the Council yesterday, landlords would be fined up to $500 per day they don't provide adequate heat and hot water, and up to $1000 for subsequent violations. more ›

Recently more of John Lennon's material items were sold off at auction—this time around his famous white suit (as seen on the cover of Abbey Road), and his green 1972 Chrysler station wagon (as seen on the streets of Manhattan). There's just one problem: the man who sold these items owes a lot of back rent for his former Manhattan apartment, and the landlord has come knockin'. According to the AP, the seller's former landlord has sued the gallery that auctioned the suit (for $46K) and wants the proceeds to satisfy a rent debt. more ›

Via a tipster on Gothamist Contribute, here's an amusing ad on Craigslist titled "Wanted: Old Insane Person To Rent To Me." Why insane? Well, there's this request, "Rent should be reasonable - even better if it's low or zero." Here's more:

Thinking about relocating from Detroit to New York to LIVE THE DREAM. My dream is to have an old, insane person rent a reasonably priced apartment to me and my husband and our FIVE PETS. I think that an old, insane person would be the perfect landlord for our unique situation because we have FIVE PETS and that seems like a lot of pets no matter where you live, but it's definitely a lot of pets if you live in New York - an old, insane person may not think it's a problem though... more ›

A Queens landlord was brutally beaten with a metal pipe and held hostage by her tenant because he was short on rent, officials say. On Tuesday afternoon Yun Zhong Sun, 43, went to 22-year-old Jasuli Abdimutel's apartment to collect the rent. He welcomed her inside, but explained that he only had $340 in cash to give her. When Sun sat down on his bed to write out a receipt, Abdimutel allegedly "hit her over the head multiple times with a metal pipe, causing her to fall over on the bed and suffer multiple lacerations to the back of her head, forehead and her face," according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown [pdf]. more ›

Like payphones, the Dodo and green benches, rent controlled apartments are disappearing, and people don't know how to deal. There are now fewer than 40,000 rent controlled apartments in NYC, a decrease of more than 20 percent over the last decade, and more than 60 percent in the last 20 years. Unlike rent stablized apartments, rent control refers to residential buildings constructed before February 1947; tenants (or their lawful successor) must have lived in their apartment continuously since before July 1, 1971, which means most of the tenants are the elderly. more ›

Hours after Patricia Wilson's body was found outside her Linwood Street apartment building in East New York, her landlord was charged with her murder. Jacqueline Wesley-Rosa, 49, was also charged with criminal possession of a weapon charges; police and neighbors say the pair had been engaged in a long-running dispute over rent and issues like trash disposal. Wilson's friend said, "It's a shock because...she's a very nice lady. Everybody will miss her, the whole block." more ›

Just after midnight, a woman was killed on Linwood Street in Brooklyn. According to WABC 7, "A 55-year-old woman was shot and killed in brooklyn early Wednesday after what is described as an ongoing dispute with her landlord... It is believed she had not been paying her rent. Police have not made any arrests, but are reportedly interviewing the landlord." more ›

Chances are you know somebody who's been afflicted with bedbugs, and have heard plenty of horror stories about sleepless nights and traumatic insemination. But there's always room for one more! 38-year-old East Williamsburg photographer Jeremy Sparig tells the Daily News how bedbugs turned his life into a living nightmare: "For several months I got into bed every night wrapped up like a Tibetan Sherpa. But I'd still wake up every few hours with them crawling on my face." Not appalled enough yet? You will be. more ›

Bad news if you live on Ocean Parkway: your landlord might be racist. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed lawsuits against owners and managers of properties in Brooklyn and Glenville, Schenectady County, claiming an undercover investigation caught them refusing to rent or show apartments to black applicants. Cuomo said in a statement, "Our investigation found that housing discrimination continues to this day and landlords who continue to ignore the law will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." more ›

The NY Times Real Estate section looked at how co-op boards are jumping on the Information Highway to find out more about prospective buyers. But this anecdote about using the Internets to get a better sense of a potential tenant struck us:

Landlords, too, find the Internet immensely useful. Victoria Shtainer, a senior vice president of Prudential Douglas Elliman, and her husband were seeking a tenant to rent their luxury Midtown apartment. A young man described by his broker, a colleague of Ms. Shtainer’s, as “an Internet genius” wanted to do a deal. more ›

Residents of 172 N 8th Street in Williamsburg had to break through a padlock to get back into their building, even though they are legally allowed to be in there. The residents recently beat landlord Jamal Alokasheh in court, accusing him of trying to empty the rent-stabilized building so he can charge more in the trendy neighborhood. more ›

A proposed state law that would require landlords to disclose bedbug history dating back five years has been amended to just one year. Landlords had objected that a five-year disclosure period would unfairly penalize property owners, by scaring off prospective tenants even if the landlords had successfully eradicated the bugs. The modified bill also no longer requires landlords to disclose specific infested apartments beyond the one under consideration by a potential renter. (Landlords would still have to disclose infestations in the building, just not their specific location.) Also missing from the bill [pdf] is any language requiring new tenants moving in from disclosing their bed bug history. One bedbug expert tells Brick Underground that in New Jersey "there are one or two buildings that have their own heat treatment chambers which incoming residents must use." more ›

Just as the sun comes out for the season, word comes in that the BKLYN Yard has been forced to shut down not one week after they kicked off the season with a weekend of opening events. Following yesterday's appearance in the NY Times, the organizers of the outdoor space on the Gowanus Canal have announced on their website that they're being forced out by their longtime landlord. more ›

Yesterday, Jersey City authorities were able to defuse a homemade bomb in a vacated pizzeria on Palisade Avenue. Jersey City Deputy Police Chief Peter Nalbach said the bomb was "very rudimentary... If you watched 'MacGyver' as a kid you could probably figure out how to do it. But if it had gone off, there would have been major destruction." And police arrested the building's landlord, who allegedly was trying to set up the pizzeria tenant! more ›

When the economy fell, the overheated residential rental market attracted tenants by offering perks like a month's free rent. But now the NY Times reports that the days of wine and roses—and owner-paid commission, free gym membership, iPods—are on the way out. A broker whose client got one month free rent said, "We sat at the lease signing and the agent said, ‘You are lucky — we aren’t going to do that anymore.’" This current quarter is apparently landlords' biggest time of year, since college graduates flock to the ciy; the Times says, "If landlords think they can get away with raising rents, this will be the time to try." The softer real estate market also benefited renters re-signing leases, so maybe it's time to break out the rent vs. buy calculator. more ›

After going to court over a year ago for moldy walls, crumbling ceilings and rat infestations, the residents of 1585 East 172nd St in the Bronx may see their awful landlord in jail. The building is part of the "Ocelot portfolio," a notorious group of housing structures bought at the peak of the real estate boom under inflated mortgages and abandoned when the buying company, Ocelot Capital, went under. Just last year, Sen. Chuck Schumer denounced the company, saying, "Residents need a landlord who will maintain the property, not someone who will look to maximize profits at the expense of residents’ safety." He implored Fannie Mae to find a buyer who would repair the buildings and keep them affordable. more ›

A 71 year-old man and his 36 year-old roommate are going to prison for hiring a 6-foot-5 inch, 350 lbs thug to strong-arm their building manager. You may recall that last year police arrested elderly architect Ekkehart Schwarz and his roommate Vassileios Giamagas, after they threatened "death and torture," against the manager when he tried to collect $265,000 in back rent on their unfinished restaurant on West Third Street. They forced him at gunpoint to sign a waiver excusing them from the rent; later, they kidnapped him and threatened him with fake guns, pliers, a screwdriver, and forced sodomy from "a giant guy with an Eastern European accent." more ›

A judge threw out the fixed price rent hikes the Rent Guidelines Board imposed on New Yorkers who live in rent-stabilized apartments — meaning that some 300,000 rent-control tenants who have been overpaying for the past two years might be reimbursed. The far-reaching ruling is a big victory for tenants and tenants advocates, and it could turn out costing landlords tens of millions of dollars. more ›

Is Mischa Barton running out of Marissa Cooper money? She hasn't had much steady work since playing that character on The OC, which ended in 2006, and now word is she's not paying her rent. more ›

You may remember last March when we reported on a 70 year-old man and his 35 year-old roommate threatening to do nasty things to their landlord after he tried (unsuccessfully) to get some of his $250,000 in back rent. Well, nearly a year later, the now 71-year-old Ekkehart Schwarz and 36 year-old Vasileios Giamagas have somehow gotten out of the charges, leaving some mysterious third man to take the brunt of it. According to the Post the building manager of this never-opened Third Avenue bar and lounge, Niroo Yavari, 48, was involved in several instances for more than a year, where he was allegedly kidnapped and threatened with fake guns, pliers, a screwdriver, and forced sodomy by what he described to cops as "a never-identified giant guy with an Eastern European accent." more ›

Mayor Bloomberg has abandoned the most ambitious part of his plan to reduce greenhouse gases, which would have required the owners of the city's largest buildings to undergo mandatory energy audits to determine green renovations — and forced the landlords to pay for the improvements. more ›