All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

I recently bought a short sale rental house that has some rooms with the floor 1-3 inches higher.  For example, the kitchen floor is 3 inches higher than the floor of the living room.  The living room and kitchen are right next to each other, with no wall or door separation.

What do you think is the best way to prevent people from tripping and falling?  I am afraid that a tenant or guest, especially when sleepy or drunk, might trip and fall from the difference in floor height, and sue me.  I was thinking of installing a door saddle/threshold, but a wooden saddle might be slippery enough to make someone trip.  I'm thinking perhaps a rubber saddle if I can find one?  What do people think?  I'm rather paranoid about getting sued after having to evict a nightmare tenant on another property with nothing wrong with it who refused to pay rent, refused to move out, constantly insulted and harassed me, and frequently threatened to sue me for millions I believe for injuries he sustained when he was drunk and stumbled.

1300 sq ft, 2 floors, 3 bedrooms 1 bathroom on each floor, built in the early 1900s. There is a breaker panel, and the electrical system has been upgraded since then.

I hired a contractor to renovate it who was pretty thorough. It's pretty well insulated. This afternoon I also asked the contractor if he had any ideas and whether space heaters would be feasible, and he said each bedroom is already wired and equipped to take its own air conditioner in the summertime and can take its own electric heater in the winter and recommended electric base board heaters. He also said the hot water heater is actually already electric but is hooked up to a gas boiler, so we would just need to bypass the boiler. So that could be promising. But I wonder if the electrical sytem could really handle base boards in every room plus any electronics the tenants would plug in.

This is the wording from the email from ConEd. The plumber pointed out that this means he would need to do all that work to pass inspection by NYC that would require that permit that takes 3 months:

"We have completed our review of your Gas service request. The attached Gas Service Layout details Con Edison’s requirements for providing service.

"We anticipate that the work we must do to provide you with service can be done within two weeks from the time your contractor completes their work in accordance with our specifications. We will also need to receive a Certificate of Inspection from the City of New York or the local authorities having jurisdiction in your area. Application for and approval of the Certificate of Inspection is the responsibility of your contractor. Please note that un-metered conditions are prohibited."

Thanks for the responses so far.  To answer some of the questions:

I want to have heat for tenants so that I can have tenants soon rather than having to wait until after the winter, which is how long the plumber says it will likely take to get the permits to do the job. If it actually works out well, then I would consider doing this long term, but for now, I'm just thinking about getting through this winter.

I have called ConEd many times since getting this house, first because they messed up my electric account numbers, which have been resolved, and then now with the issue of the gas.  For the gas, the last few times I called to check on status, they just told me the plumber need to submit a few documents, and I told the plumber that, but it wasn't until today that the plumber told me that in order to submit those documents, he would need to do so much work and get a permit and get the NYC inspection involved.  Actually one of the emails ConEd had sent me did mention NYC inspection and work by the plumber, but no details as to the work involved and the delay in getting a work permit.

I bought a short sale rental house in New York a little over a month ago that had to be renovated.  The gas heat was turned off last April by ConEd, the local utility company, because the previous owner had not paid the bills.  ConEd first told me the gas was on, then when I told them it wasn't, and the gas meter was locked, they checked with another department that told me it had been off since April.  To get the heat back on, I would need to get a licensed plumber to do some tests.  I had a plumber come out and do the tests.  Now ConEd wants the plumber to submit additional documentation, which would require him to do more work and get an NYC inspector to come out.  In order to do the work, the plumber would need to get a work permit, and the plumber said it takes a few months to get a work permit these days!  Renovations are almost done, and I was hoping to get this place rented soon, but it appears that there will be no heat all winter!

So, I am thinking of getting space heaters and an electric water tank.  Probably would get weaker space heaters to avoid blowing the fuses.  Does anyone here have this kind of experience and know of a better alternative?

Sounds as bad as a tenant I had!  My former tenant was actually a friend, so I made the big mistake of cutting him a great deal and relaxing my standards.  He stopped paying rent after the first month, saying he would pay it all back the next month.  Then at the end of the next month, he had a mental breakdown, got fairly intoxicated, and harassed and insulted me.  I had to call the police, who sent him to a hospital, but he was released after fewer than 2 hours.  He actually said he would move out the month after but changed his mind after another week, asking for a few more months due to being broke.  I agreed to 2 more months, but then he kept periodically insulting and harassing me and refusing to make progress in moving out or paying rent.  In addition, he also kept threatening to sue me for hundreds of thousands of dollars, then a million dollars, then a billion dollars in 2 lawsuits.  He never said what kind of lawsuits.  He was usually incoherent and drunk.  But I suspect it was for personal injury because he fell and injured himself once when he was alone in the apartment, and drunk and feeling dizzy.  I finally filed for eviction a little more than 3 months after the mental breakdown incident.  He finally sobered up and moved out a month later and has been slowly paying me for back rent.  I just hope he continues paying the back rent and I won't have to file another lawsuit to collect the back rent.  I am also relieved that he finally got out. I will screen EVERY prospective tenant thoroughly in the future and avoid renting to friends.

Oh, and that former tenant also trashed my place, although no structural damage, and he did clean it up significantly before moving out.  He still left behind a significant fruit fly and roach infestation that took me a month to eradicate!  And I had to throw away a lot of trash he had left behind, in addition to cleaning down the place very thoroughly multiple times.

Hey Steve, I am in New York as well and finally got landlord insurance here in New York after searching for almost a week.  Are you also trying to get landlord insurance in New York? I also found that many companies don't provide landlord insurance, including the insurance carrier for the condo I've owned and lived in for the last 4 years.  Furthermore, the companies that do offer landlord insurance would require me to have my primary residence insured with them as well.  So I had to switch carriers for my condo as well.  I don't know how it would work for someone who does not currently have home or auto insurance, but I can give you a list of companies I contacted who do offer landlord insurance here in NY if you're looking in NY.

I just bought my first rental house in the Bronx and am currently renovating it.  Once the renovations are done, I would like to rent it out ASAP.  I came across very useful articles on this site, include this one about the four pillars of tenant screening: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/05/12...

It recommends requiring that tenants make gross income of at least 3.5X the rent.  That doesn't seem too feasible in New York, where rents are very high overall.  To all you New York landlords, what income criteria do you use? 

I was checking demographic information on realtor.com, clrsearch.com, and city-data.com.  The average rent in the Bronx neighborhood of my rental house is $1474, while median household income is 27,590, or $2299.17/month, only 1.56 times average monthly rent.  And in the Manhattan neighborhood where I live, average rent is $2521, median household income $38,035 or $3169.58/month, or 1.26 times average monthly rent.  I would think it would be hard to find tenants in New York who satisfy the gross income of 3.5x rent requirement.