The Perils of Renovating if You Rent – The New York Times

All of this was done on my own dime; the landlord didnt pay for a nail, Mr. Bloom said. My rent was subsidized, but that was offset by spending $60,000.

He hoped to renew his lease at favorable rates. But last spring, the landlord told him the rent would go from $3,865 a month to $5,850. And Mr. Bloom would still be responsible for heat and building maintenance from replacing a broken refrigerator in one of the two apartments to dealing with a broken boiler.

I was astonished I did not get a better deal, said Mr. Bloom, who couldnt afford the increase. Finally, in late fall, after months of negotiation, he signed a new four-year-lease at $4,800 a month, with 2 percent annual increases. While he would have preferred to simply rent his own unit at a discount, the landlord was not amenable to splitting the leases, and Mr. Bloom is still responsible for the heat and maintenance, including replacing appliances, although not for the mechanicals or the roof.

The deal, he said, is barely financially manageable. The downstairs unit now rents for $3,150 a month, leaving him with a cost of $1,650 for the top floor. And the landlord has told him he must leave after his current lease ends in 2023.

The space I created is a delightful, strange, kooky space, he said. I think I wanted to create a space that felt welcoming and like my New York the way New York used to be.

But it ended up driving home the reality of renting in New York: If youre not in a rent-stabilized apartment, your claim on a place begins and ends with the lease.

Its challenging to reconcile the idea of home with impermanence, he said. But that is the nature of being a renter.

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The Perils of Renovating if You Rent - The New York Times