Cautionary Tale

The following is an email conversation between myself and a landlord in Washington Heights. The purpose of this post is to show anyone out there looking for apartments that this can be a sticky business, indeed.

First of all, let me make something clear: this interaction has left me more with a sense of bemusement than anything else. There is nothing personal about this situation, I just find it somewhat astonishing.

The background is this: I knew, secondhand, that an apartment was being vacated. I attempted to contact the landlord through the regular means of communication, to no avail. Instead, I contacted the current tenant, who told me that the landlord did not yet know that she was vacating. She said the landlord had called her asking why people were inquiring about the apartment.

She gave me a date to call the landlord, saying she'd give him notice by then. As far as she knew, the apartment wasn't spoken for.

He was out of the office that day, but here is the conversation we had today (the names have been altered to protect their identities)

**********

YONI LEVINSON:

Hi Mr. Trask,

This is Yoni Levinson again - I emailed you last week asking if you had any vacancies in [The Taj Mahal]; I still haven't heard back from you.

Please let me know if you have anything opening up. I'd like to apply for a lease if you do.

Thanks!

Yoni L.

ADAM TRASK:

There are no vacancies, sorry.

YONI LEVINSON:

I see. Has someone already picked up the lease on [3.14159]? The current tenant told me that she is moving out at the end of August.

ADAM TRASK:

Yes, that is spoken for already.

YONI LEVINSON:

She told me that she only gave you notice as of last Friday. Did someone apply for the lease between then and now? Because I tried calling you on that day and I received a message saying that you were out of the office.

I'm just a little bit confused as to when someone would have had a chance to pick up the lease.

ADAM TRASK:

Believe me, someone who is a very good friend of her already knew weeks and weeks ago and has been in contact with me. The apartment is not available.

YONI LEVINSON:

Oh. If that's true, then why didn't you tell me the apartment was spoken for when I contacted you at the beginning of the month?

ADAM TRASK:

I cannot go on and on with this. I get dozens of calls a day from people either looking to move into the building or people in the building asking different things. It gets confusing. Many, many times the tenants plan everything out among themselves without telling me what they are planning, and we are the landlord. The bottom line is there is someone who is going to take this apartment and there is nothing available.

YONI LEVINSON:

I understand - it can be frustrating to manage all the requests. I happen to know, in this case, that the current tenant at least did not plan anything. And I also know that when I contacted you I specifically mentioned this apartment.

I'd imagine that you are not interested in the moment in going back in time to sort out who contacted you first. I don't expect you to reneg on this person who is taking over 1E. In light of the miscommunication between me, you and the former tenant, however, I'd imagine you have no problem refunding my $50 deposit that I made on the online form yesterday; as a courtesy.

Thanks

**********

So far, no word from Mr. - uh - Trask

The lessons we learn here are manifold. Firstly, when it comes to highly desirable pieces of real estate, people (at least in Washington Heights) prefer secrecy over open disclosure as to the destiny of their apartments once they vacate them. This I find quite intriguing. Why would anyone attempt to hide (let us assume, from the evidence, that this may have occurred) the fact that an apartment was spoken for? It didn't serve anyone else's interests, and now I'm short $50!

Of course, the other lesson here is that landlords might not play by the rules. I was under the impression, at least, that landlords are not supposed to lease out apartments that are not technically available for leasing. Maybe I would replace "rules" with "conventional wisdom".

All this is interesting social commentary and jolly good sport (I, at least, enjoyed my email spat). The only part of this whole story that is actually somewhat sad is the culture that has arisen among fellow Jews - one rife with distrust, competition and sometimes even deceit. Believe it or not, it's totally possible to conduct this business, end up with an outcome to your liking, and still manage to avoid these shameful aspects.