Repainting my apartment?

Check your lease. A friend is on a three year lease agreement so when it's time to renew that's when he knows it's time for a painting.

It's odd that new leases still have that repainting clause. Harks back to the time when the air was much dirtier, people smoked indoors, etc.

I will check the lease, however each lease renewal has only been for 12 months so I am not sure if that clause would even be in there.

The 3-year rule applies to rent-stabilized apartments. Unless you are rent-stabilized or have a provision in your lease, there is no obligation.

Your landlord should at least give you the paint brand and color number. Sometimes you can get away with spot painting for a while. We've been in our rental for five years as well, and just decided to paint everything except the ceilings ourselves. But we kind of like to paint.

You could ask for paint plus supplies and you provide the labor.

No law, not in rent stabilization anyway. Don't know about rent controlled. My landlord paid for the cost of the paint + supplies and I supplied the labor. He said 5 years between paintings is about right.

lease or not, you should just ask. i lived in a place for 4+ years and the landlord repainted and gave us a new fridge and stove in that time just because we asked for them and it was time to update a few things.

mr. clean magic erasers are great for removing marks on walls. you can get them at duane reade.

It can't hurt to ask. We've had our bathrooms repainted a couple of times, though, that's because there were some problems with the sub-par paint job done before we moved in...

Also got new kitchen floor and new counter-tops--just by asking nicely (remember, capital improvements are a tax write-off for the landlord).

Thanks for the suggestions. I am not rent controlled or stabilized, so I will see what my LL has to say. I will also try the magic erasers.

Careful with those majic erasers, they work so wekk that you will have a very clean spot amis the dingy wall!

oops...work so well