Councilman: Tishman Speyer Dragnet at Stuy Town Snaring Innocent Tenants
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Looks like the $5.4 billion landlord is having some trouble winning the hearts and minds of some of its residents.
Tishman Speyer, which bought the 11,200-apartment Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village for that record amount in late 2006, has been pursuing illegal tenants subletting from rent-stabilized tenants for more than a year now, presumably in an attempt to get a better return on its investment. After all, landlords tend to get a whole lot more money from market-rate units than from the rent-regulated ones; and illegal tenants are, well, illegal.
But as tuna fishermen do to dolphins, the firm seems to be catching a whole lot of innocent tenants as they cast a net for illegal sublets, or so claims Councilman Daniel Garodnick, a resident himself of Peter Cooper Village.
“Too many legitimate rent-stabilized tenants are being asked to defend themselves against false accusations that they are not legally entitled to their apartment,” Mr. Garodnick wrote in a letter to Tishman’s president, Rob Speyer, late last month. “The posture toward tenants is increasingly being viewed as radical, and is having a deleterious effect on the community.”
Tishman has been sending rent-stabilized tenants notices of nonrenewal when it comes across records that lead it to believe a tenant could be illegally subletting. Mr. Garodnick, saying such notices were going to too many legal residents, called for a moratorium on the notices. Numbers provided to Mr. Garodnick in October suggest that about 50 percent of those who were sent notices of nonrenewal ultimately gave up their apartments.
“We have no issue with Tishman Speyer preserving its rights, but we don’t want innocent tenants getting swept up in the process,” Mr. Garodnick said in an interview.
A spokesman for Tishman Speyer, Bud Perrone, said the company has been in frequent contact with Mr. Garodnick, and the notices in question only go out when there is evidence to think a tenant is not using the home as his or her primary residence.
“We consider each case carefully and on an individual basis, and only send notices when we have a good-faith belief as to our assertion of nonprimary residence,” Mr. Perrone said in a statement. “Any resident who receives a notice can contact us to discuss it, and we will set up a time to meet and talk about their particular case if a resident wishes.”
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Tishman Speyer's representative claims that they only go after tenants when they have evidence they live elsewhere. But what is the quality ofthe evidence? Obviously, with more than half the challenges failing, the evidence can't be of good quality. No matter what league you are in, a less than .500 record means your losers. Hopefully for them, when they do deals their due diligence is better than when they challenge primary residence.
I know first hand that if Tishman Speyer was really vetting the Golub notices fewer would be going out. They are not. They are relying on faulty and out of date data. They have outsourced this job to various law firms with little oversight. This is done by design so Tishman Speyer can distance itself, while all the long still being well in control.
At the same time that Tishman Speyer is on an eviction rampage, in an extremely tight market they are letting many apartments stand vacant--as many as two whole buildings, according to a source cited by Councilman Garodnick. And yet, even with the housing crisis, they are keeping the market-rate rents high--clearly, higher than the market will bear. Helluva way to make back an investment.
Former residents of Stuy Town of 13 years. Given two notices of eviction(makes it more expensive to protect your rights).
The judge kept favoring the Tishman Speyer lawyers, even though it was clear that the apartment had been our main residence, for 13 years. We were there for it all! All of the repointing, all of the three times our roof was "redone", all of the construction, all of the harassment etc etc etc. I could not live with the fear anymore or the harassment or the fight to save our apartment. It was a full time job gathering and preparing information. Just gave up our apartment to Tishman Speyers June 30 2008. They were in no way with in the law but they could afford the lawyers. I am mad at myself for giving in, but could not take it any more and hope for better chances with less harassment. I encourage others to keep up the fight and am sorry that I gave in. It makes me sick that I will leave my neighborhood of 18 years, resident of Manhattan for 20.