Setting expectations for apartment showings with my landlord in NYC

February 27, 2021 6:49 PM

I'm going to notify my landlord in NYC that I'll move out in 1 month, at the end of my lease. What are reasonable expectations for apartment showings as they find the next tenants? I'm curious about applicable tenant rights, if any, and how it's worked for you if you've moved/had a tenant move during the pandemic.

I'm asking because our needs seem potentially at odds: I want as few strangers in my apartment as possible, while I'm guessing my landlord will want to show it more aggressively to secure a new tenant ASAP. They're probably not any more eager for exposure than I am, but what we perceive as necessary risk may differ.

I'll also chance asking a tangential question because it seems straightforward: In NYC, after the initial 12(+) month lease, can you ever just keep renting month-to-month, or do you always need to sign another 12(+) month lease? Month-to-month has been common in the other cities I've lived in but doesn't seem to be a thing here?

posted by estlin to Work & Money (10 answers total)

As to your tangential question: Yes, your tenancy switches over to month-to-month at the end of the lease.
posted by thesockpuppet at 6:53 PM on February 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

Tell them that you can make the place available to show for a single 4 hour block of time, say 9a-1p on a Sunday. They need to advertise the place a week or two before that. Then they should screen people by phone, and make appointments in 15 or 30 minute blocks, for one person or at most a couple per appointment. It's a reasonable concession and allows you to draw a firm line without getting into a back and forth type of thing. If they are any good at landlording they can make that work.

Of course you can soften it by saying "So, I was talking to a friend who has a rental place about how they did this during a pandemic, and this is what they said worked really well for them." And that would be true.
posted by dum spiro spero at 7:41 PM on February 27, 2021

Your lease probably specifies your landlord's access rights. Most common requires 24 hrs. notice except in emergencies. Open the windows, be out when they come.

(The pandemic has weirdified the market but expecting someone to come in two weeks after responding to an ad or the landlord to do prescreening still seems unlikely to fly to me.)

Unless you're in a rent-regulated apartment, to which special rules concerning renewal apply, a year-to-year lease becomes month-to-month when it expires. Note that if you continue occupancy without the landlord's consent, this makes you a holdover tenant and the landlord can bring an eviction action.
posted by praemunire at 7:51 PM on February 27, 2021 [7 favorites]

I’d recommend speaking to the landlord, voicing your concerns and asking if there is a middle ground. When we moved out of our apartment at the end of 2020, we called our landlord and explained the situation. We came to the middle ground of paying for an extra two weeks of rent in exchange for them agreeing to not show the apartment till after we moved out. Obviously this solution will not be acceptable to everyones, but it came about because we were upfront with our concerns.
posted by Pretty Good Talker at 8:15 PM on February 27, 2021 [3 favorites]

I moved out in of a Brooklyn apartment in October and my management company didn’t even try to show my apartment while I was still living there. Every apartment I looked at when moving (6-7?) was entirely vacant. Ymmv, but it might be a non-issue.
posted by A Blue Moon at 8:38 PM on February 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

I moved my child to a new apartment in Brooklyn (from Manhattan) in September. She actually found the apartment online from another state while quarantined. Maybe offer to let landlord create a virtual tour? That might screen out a lot of people. I would also ask that they have set hours on the weekend or whenever is convenient for you to be out. Not have many random calls for showings.
posted by AugustWest at 8:51 PM on February 27, 2021

“ can you ever just keep renting month-to-month,”. Unless it’s indicated in any correspondence with your landlord, your landlord is going to ask you to sign a new 12 month lease.
posted by sandmanwv at 9:48 PM on February 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

When I was a renter in NYC I twice went on to a month to month lease after the official lease ended...once because of the timing of some long term travel plans, and the next time because I was buying a place and the closing got delayed. You should just get the agreement in writing with your landlord.
posted by newpotato at 1:08 AM on February 28, 2021

We very recently moved out of our Brooklyn apartment after a 1-month notice that we were leaving. We did not get an requests to view our apartment during that month, and the landlord was pretty relaxed about even getting new photos of the unit before we left. Part of this is because we have a good relationship with them, but I suspect the other part is that supply has so overwhelmed demand in the NYC housing market that landlords know it’s not going to be like it used to be, when open units would get snapped up ASAP. Which is to say, you have a bit more leverage right now as a tenant to make these requests in the current environment.
posted by obliterati at 9:09 AM on February 28, 2021 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you for sharing your experiences! I feel better prepared now to have this conversation, so I appreciate you all.
posted by estlin at 3:34 PM on February 28, 2021