Stuyvesant Town residents are learning via the New York Post, and not from their landlord Tishman Speyer, that they will now have to pay for their own electricity despite the fact their leases say otherwise."Residents of iconic apartment complexes Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town will soon be paying for their own electricity, The Post has learned.
The 11,000-unit apartment complex is in the process of converting to a metered system as part of a series of cost-saving initiatives being pushed by Stuy-Town's new owner, real estate developer Tishman Speyer, people familiar with the matter said.
The metered system is expected to be announced to the complex's 19,000 residents in the next few days. It will be rolled out as part of a larger plan to reduce overall energy usage by 20 percent over the next three years."
The article also claims that Tish-Spy is hurting for cash so bad that they have outsourced their billing to India and refuses to pay Stuy Town employees overtime if they are working on stabilized apartments.
Tishman Speyer Turns Up Heat, Electricity on Renters [New York Post]
Once upon a time a lease meant a two-way agreement between parties, with each party expected to hold up his/her end of the deal.
In these days, however, it seem that the landlord does not have to do anything to maintain quality of life or to keep up his end of the contract. Not only can the landlord disturb your sleep with unending and useless construction projects, hinder your safety with forests of trees to shield muggers, and usurp your privacy with electronic surveillance. Now he can renege on his agreement to provide electricity as part of the lease.
When will we band together to combat this constant abuse?
...But if you take a look at Stuyvesant Town, that’s a very different deal than this one. Starrett City is much more problematic. When Stuyvesant Town was sold it was a private seller selling to a private buyer. The seller had been a very good landlord over the years a good company, Met Life. The buyer…Jerry Speyer’s a great landlord, and I think the tenants in Stuyvesant Town will be well protected. And, you know, its rents will go up, but rents — everything goes up to some extent….
ST residents with air conditioners signed contracts which allow T-S to assess a monthly fee per air conditioner added to the monthly rent bill paid by rent stabilized tenants. If you have 3 AC's you pay $80.00 a month for 12 months. That's nearly $1,000 a year. What about those contracts and assessments?!? Just so much paper like the the leases??!! When is a reporter with any courage at all going to cover this increasingly abusive story?
Simple solution - after they install the meters i am going to smash them with a hammer
I cant wait to move out of this place
Charging the tenants for their own electricity will help subsidize the bright shining lies that TS tries to pass off as "Oval Essentials"
Well, in order to charge us I guess we each need a thermostat so that we can control our own heat. Yes? So will the installation of the thermostats be yet another MCI?
The Tishman Organization is a lot of things, (and many not so nice ones come to mind actually), but I don't believe that they're totally stupid. Unless of course they actually try to pull this metering trick on the Rent Regulated tenants.
The metering of services, and the subsequent charging of Rent Regulated tenants for such services such as electricity, gas, heat or water is just not doable under the terms of your Rent Stabilized Lease. I assume it's the same for those lucky few who are Rent Controlled tenants, but I don't know that for sure.
For those of us who are Rent Stabilized, however, I refer you to Clause 29 of your original Rent Stabilized Lease, which is entitled SERVICES. You will note that per your lease all those items are to be provided by the Landlord, excepting in the case of electricity only heavy appliances (i.e. your Air Conditioners), which they are collecting additional $$ for anyway, and in the case of water for those frivoulus electric dishwashers.
In addition to your original lease, every renewal lease also states in Item 7, that "This Renewal Lease is based on the same terms and conditions as your expiring lease...".
I can clearly see that they can certainly get the new Market Rate tenants with this one, but I don't see how it can possibly apply to the Rent Stabilized folks...
Between the City Council's vote today and this news, I feel as if I've been gang raped by a group of gorillas. Please, please let Obama be elected. I can't take another letdown.
I found out rents will be lowered for every stabilized tenant (I don't know the formula/percentage) AND that will be beneficial at lease-renewal time.
How much does anyone want to bet that Rubenstein communications makes a press releases in the near future touting the sub-metering project as some sort of green initiative to save the environment.
To Anonymous...regarding Cause 29 and Item 7 in the rent stabilized leases...I called the city today regarding this matter...and they said that Tishman Speyer CAN pull this crap on existing rent stabilized tenants as long as they have filed an application with the Rent Guidelines Board...and assuming it had been rubber stamped...I mean, approved.
So, therefore, no...our leases are not worth the paper they're printed on!
And as for the installation of individual meters...nope they don't have to do that either. Instead, they can choose to divvy up the utility costs using a formula and tack the additional costs onto your rent.
Very nice, right?
Why does this rodent think the City needs him to serve another term because of the economic crisis? It was his Wall Street pals and predatory lenders who got us into this mess with their lying, stealing and books-cooking. Having someone like him "helping" the City is like having a thief hold your wallet for you.
Well, his Majesty Mayor Mike von Bloomberg III can still be stopped by NYC voters next November, especially if he continues to step on his sceptre. Remember the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about the vain Emperor's New Clothes; here's how it ends:
But among the crowds a little child suddenly gasped out, "But he hasn't got anything on." And the people began to whisper to one another what the child had said. "He hasn't got anything on." "There's a little child saying he hasn't got anything on." Till everyone was saying, "But he hasn't got anything on." The Emperor himself had the uncomfortable feeling that what they were whispering was only too true. "But I will have to go through with the procession," he said to himself.
Let's be sure to tell his Majesty that we all know he's not wearing any clothes and we see right through his arrogance.
When I walked through ST years ago and noticed that MetLife had begun removing the chain link fences that protected the lawns, I said to myself--half in prayer and half in fear...."Paralist is lost." The Speyers obviously believe in what the Fallen Angel turned Devil Lucifer said: "Rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." Their pride and hubris has created a hell of a former paradise and they reign in it. The Speyers had the opporunity to serve humanity and go down in urban history for preserving a masterful plan for middle-income urban living, for maintaining and even improving a historical vision made real. But they chose to make it hell in the service of our mayor, his wealthy friends and their fortunes. Farewwll.
Tishman Speyer is doing to the lease what Dick Cheney has done to the constitution.
when billing a tenant for estimated use of power, the landlord must independently measure approximate use of power by that tenant by an independent contractor. this must be done over a period of time with the knowledge of the renter. the landlord must then show that the rent will be reduced by that amount as shown on the lease. the benefit is to the tenant as rent increases are based on percentage of the current rent with the exclusion of the utilities paid by the tenant.
Tishman currently receives commercial rates for the electricity we use.
WE WILL NOT
Any rebates rent stabilized tenants receive will be based on their lower costs, we will be charged at higher rates.
Has anyone asked Con Edison how happy they will be with this increased clientele?
11,000 apartments ripe for the raping!
can they really, really charge us for electricity when it is inclusive in the rent as per our lease? is there no way to make TS adhere to that?
if TS cannot uphold their end of the lease, is there any way to legally get out of it without repercussions? as a market rate renter, paying $3200 for a one bedroom, i'd rather take my money elsewhere and not have to deal with the constant annoyances that have become the "luxury lifestyle" here. i mean seriously? is there no way to break a lease if management is at fault?
thanks.