What is this Landlord's Motivation?

that sounds unusual. Either they want to go co-op or maybe they want to sell the building.

maybe planning to selectively refurb market rate apartments? doesn't seem to make any sense.

They want to go condo?

All the market rate apartments are renovated.

Does a month-to-month lease somehow make you inelligible for coop insider pricing? we would be the only people (market) that would be interested in buying. rent stabilized/controlled can't see them buying into a coop and they can't kick them out if the go coop.

Also they allowed me to negotiate a reduction in rent.

Maybe they're replacing plumbing risers, re-wiring whole lines, etc. . . . ?

they may not want to lock in a lower rent for 2 yrs lease when they expect that by beginning of 2010, they can get a lot more.

do you live in midtown east....is that who i think it is???

no i live on the UWS. they aren't even giving one year leases - which should be a no- brainer as rents are falling and I doubt they'll climb higher in one year.

there's a case (although Second Department, so it's not a slam dunk in the First Department) which ruled that a Sponsor MUST give renewal leases to the tenants in their unsold shares (not exactly the case here, though). There are also "anti-warehousing" laws (in other words, there's a cap on the number of vacant units a LL can carry and then Coop or Condo).

One thing to look at is the other holdings of the landlord and see what else he has done. There are quite a number of guys who if I heard who it was, could tell you with 80% certainty what they were planning on.

One reason for the month-to-month is that the LL may believe it would be an impediment to forming a "Tenant's committee" for fear of not having your lease renewed at the end of the month.

"All the market rate apartments are renovated."

I find it hard to believe that they are renovated to the same extent they would be if the building were being converted to Condo. just doesn't make sense, never seen anyone with that kind of building do that.

Agree it's weird, but it's not warehousing. Probly doesn't want to lock into lower rents, but, too bad, that's the market. It's a bad time to convert to condo/coop. Very strange. Worse comes to worse, if he gives you a 30 day notice, you can go to court & get around/ at least 6 more months. Stupid to piss off so many Ts & cause them to organize.

4

i thought there aren't insider price adjustments...sounds strange.

So 30yrs --- are you saying that if you new who the management company was you could find out what's going on -- i think they have a few building on the uws.

Weinreb

You'd think=I'd think that a one year lease wouldn't hurt anything; it doesn't seem like the rental rates will rise in that time. Hmmm .....