Tag Archives: garage

Rental Potholes

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photo by Eric Haddox

Realtor.com quoted me in Rental Potholes—and How to Avoid Falling Into Them. It opens,

Until you have the money to buy your own home, renting is eventually a part of just about every person’s life. And typically this transaction tends to work out just fine. Until it doesn’t. Because there is indeed plenty that can go wrong, leaving renters learning some difficult lessons through trial and error. To make sure you aren’t one of them, check out these rental roadblocks—and what you can do to keep from getting stuck.

Somebody’s watching you

“My work took our family to Florida and in our haste to find somewhere to live with our two kids, we found a gorgeous townhouse seaside rental. The ocean views were incredible, just what we’d dreamed of. So incredible, in fact, that we didn’t realize the unit lacked window coverings of any kind! And as much as I loved looking at the ocean, there were times when some level of privacy was desired; people could see into the whole house if they were walking along the beach. When we shared this ‘oversight’ with the landlord, his offer was to split the costs of full-house window coverings! We decided not to help the property owner increase the value of his home. We continued to enjoy ocean views on a 24/7 basis but moved out after a year.” – Rhonda Moret, Del Mar, CA

Lesson learned: Don’t let your enthusiasm keep you from doing your due diligence before thoroughly vetting a place and signing on the dotted line.

“This responsibility falls squarely on the tenant; you can’t expect someone else to look out for your interests. That’s your job,” says David Reiss, academic program director for Brooklyn Law School’s Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship. But by the same turn, don’t fall for a landlord’s request to “split the cost”—any renovations should be his responsibility all the way.

Bye-bye, security deposit

“When I handed our landlord a $1,000 security deposit, I assumed I’d get it back whenever we left, and didn’t bother to do a walk-through of the apartment to make sure it was in decent shape. Big mistake! Once we moved out, the landlord sent us a letter stating he was keeping the security deposit because we had broken a window in the garage. Only we hadn’t—that must have been done by a previous tenant. We got charged for someone else’s damage.” – Mindy Jensen, Wheaton, IL

Lesson learned: “Doing a walk-through inspection is important if you want your security deposit back,” says Reiss. “It’s important to add details like time stamps to everything and get documentation that your landlord received the report.”

Also consider recording a video with your smartphone while you walk through the place. The more backup material you have, the better the odds that you’ll get back what you deserve.

Your pet or your pad

“A few years ago, my family and I rented a townhouse. There was a pet shop on the corner selling the cutest puppies, and we fell in love with a French bulldog and bought him. That’s when things started to get ugly. We hadn’t checked the rental agreement to see if we could own a pet. When our landlord found out, she became hysterical and asked us to leave—or get rid of the dog. We ended up homeless, but with a very cute puppy. Fortunately, we stayed at a friend’s place until we found a dog-friendly home.” – Derek McLane, Sydney, Australia

Lesson learned: “Read the fine print before you sign. This is pretty fundamental, even if it is not fun to do,” says Reiss.

At the very least, ask your landlord what the rules are and to specify where the pertinent parts can be found in the lease. Be aware that many leases don’t allow pets, or will make pet owners pay an extra fee known as pet rent.

You’ve got mail … a mile away

“I was living in an amazing apartment when the mailboxes in the foyer were vandalized to the point where the USPS deemed them ‘unsafe for delivery of mail.’ We were ‘temporarily’ redirected to pick up mail six blocks up and four very long avenue blocks over until the landlords had an opportunity to repair our mailboxes. A year and a half later, they still hadn’t been fixed—and to make matters worse, a stairwell skylight had collapsed. I was forced to take on the practically full-time job of challenging my landlord to make repairs. I finally was able to make something happen by researching the building and finding out that my landlord had illegally jacked up the rent more than was legally allowed by rent-stabilization laws. Eventually, my efforts resulted in a rent reduction, reinstated mail delivery, and a very bad tenant/landlord relationship.” – Tim Tucker, Las Vegas, NV

Lesson learned: “Know your rights. Tenants have a lot of them, particularly in rent-regulated apartments,” says Reiss.

Just a Dude Fixin’ Cars

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car-lift

Realtor.com quoted me in Neighbors Sue Man for Tinkering With Cars in His Own Garage. It opens,

Charles Williams loves working on cars, a hobby he’s continued even after losing his legs in 1993 in a freak construction accident. So in 2007, he poured $65,000 into building a nearly 2,000-square-foot four-car garage next to his house in Harbeson, DE. The place—which has vintage license plates covering the walls and lifts so he and his buddies can tinker to their heart’s content without lying on the concrete floor—is a car nut’s fantasy. At least, it was, until some of Williams’ neighbors—apparently offended by the sight, smell, and sounds of guys doing guy stuff—decided to sue Williams for repairing cars in his own garage.

In 2014, three of Williams’s neighbors—Margaret Foulke next door and John and Carol Kane, who live 800 feet down the road—filed a lawsuit against Williams saying that the garage was a noisy, stinky nuisance and must be torn down, according to The Cape Gazette. In June, a judge ruled in favor of Williams, explaining simply, “Mr. Williams has a not-uncommon hobby—working on cars—that he pursues with an uncommon vigor.”

Nonetheless, the neighbors plan to take their case up the chain to the Delaware Supreme Court.

Williams says he’s spent $30,000 defending himself from his accusers, who also claim he built the garage without permits and runs it as an illegal business. But Williams denies these allegations as well, saying he received the proper permission to build and has never accepted money in exchange for repairs. In fact, he has even fixed vehicles owned by the very people are demanding that he tear down his garage!

“I’ve fixed their lawnmowers, I’ve fixed their tractor, I’ve fixed their golf carts… I did everything for them, anything they asked, since that’s what neighbors do,” says Williams.

At first glance, the plaintiffs seem like candidates for a “worst neighbors” award. But we had to wonder: Is there anything to this case? Is it ever illegal for to tinker with  cars in your own garage?

While local laws vary by area, as a general rule, David Reiss, a professor of Law at Brooklyn University and editor of REFinBlog.com, thinks the neighbors are spinning their wheels.

“The facts sure don’t seem to be on their side, at least as this article portrays them,” says Reiss. Here’s a rundown of the neighbor’s complaints about the garage, and why Williams appears to be in the clear.

Noise complaints

“There are a lot of loud things in and near homes,” points out Reis. Compare a vacuum cleaner at 10 feet (70 decibels) to a lawnmower (as high as 90 decibels) to a train (100 decibels).

“Many localities have restrictions on the decibel level of noise that can come from a property, but those levels can be pretty darn high,” Reiss explains. “New York City, for instance, limits garbage trucks to 80 decibels from a distance of 35 feet when they’re not compacting. It limits music from commercial establishments to 42 decibels when measured from inside a neighbor’s home.”

In other words, the sound of a few motors running or rock music probably aren’t loud enough to write home about—or to sue over.

Noxious fumes and other nuisances

Sure, these neighbors could claim that the eau de motor oil emanating from William’s garage is a “nuisance.” It’s just that they would have to be deemed “unreasonable in the context of their residential neighborhood,” says Reiss.

“The neighbors could also argue that the increased traffic that resulted from this use was a nuisance too, but that also seems like a major stretch,” says Reiss.

Illegal activity

“The neighbors could claim that Williams is running a commercial establishment in a residential neighborhood, but it sounds from the article like the facts don’t support this claim,” says Reiss. So unless the neighbors catch a huge wad of cash passing hands, Williams is just a regular dude who digs cars.

Compact Units: Mountain or Molehill?

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NYU’s Furman Center has posted a short Research Brief, Compact Units:  Demand and Challenges. The brief notes that there is no formal definition of a compact or micro unit of housing, but

the term is typically used to refer to units that contain their own bathroom and a kitchen or kitchenette, but are significantly smaller than the standard studio apartment in a given city. Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are self-contained units located on the property of a single-family home. Sometimes ADUs are separate structures, like a cottage on the same lot as a primary dwelling; sometimes they are attached to the primary structure, located in a basement, in an extension, or over a garage.

Proponents of compact units argue that they allow seniors to live independently, respond to changing household sizes and demographics, reduce sprawl through urban infill, mitigate the environmental effects of larger developments by reducing energy consumption, free up larger units for families, and help cities provide housing affordable to a wider range of households. (2)

The brief is a very useful overview of the debate concerning compact units but my own take is that they represent a mere molehill of possibility when it comes to affordable housing. No new construction in cities, unless heavily subsidized, is geared toward low-income households and probably only a small portion of such new construction is geared to moderate-income households. The economics of new construction just don’t allow it.

This is not to say that New York City shouldn’t change its larger-than-average minimum unit size regulations (400 square feet) so that they are in line with those of other cities (220 square feet). These small units could work well for all sorts of one-person households, which, by the way, make up more than half of all households in NYC. They just wouldn’t be low-income households. But, by expanding the total number of units available, they can put at least some downward pressure on rents.

My bottom line: compact units are good, but they will not provide the mountain of affordable housing that some claim they can.