Regulated / non-regulated co-op tenants

The recent grand jury indictment for manslaughter because of illegal partitions found in the apartment spells problems for any tenant who has a permanent partition in the apartment.

I predict that many landlords will now mount holdover petitions. First, they will do so out of fear; second they will do so as a golden opportunity to evict.

If a tenant has such a permanent partition in his or her apartment the following steps must be taken.

1.  Hire an engineer or architect to ascertain whether it is a legal partition done with the approval of the Building Department.

2.   If the answer is no, you have but two choices.

a)  Ask your engineer/architect whether it can be made legal and, if so, make it legal.

(b)   If not, take it down promptly.

It is my opinion that if the matter gets to Court the defense that I had the consent of the landlord will no longer be acceptable, even if the landlord built the partition.

The landlord will claim he now recognizes the danger, the Building Department will give a violation and you will be evicted.

In this atmosphere you must act at once to protect yourself.