I got a call this morning from HPD (housing and preservation department, I think). Now, I think I confused the caller by being so happy to hear from the HPD(I had made friends with this lady named Reva last time I was at the HPD office and overall have a pretty positive expectation of them). But they told me they had received a complaint from an apartment that there was no heat and hot water in the building.
Normally, no heat and hot water in a building in the middle of winter is my worst nightmare, but I was more confused than anything. First of all, the apartment they claimed made the call was the apartment of my superintendent, who calls me directly for all problems that she and my other super (who lives two doors down) can’t handle. Second of all, there was a backed up sewer pipe the night before and I had my plumber/boiler expert there for a couple hours to fix that. I figure if the boiler and the heater were out, he would at least let me know. Third of all, after calling my super and seeing if the heat and hot water had somehow fixed themselves, she told me there was never any problem and the water was “caliente.”
This makes me wonder, does the HPD do any kind of checking to see if prank calls are coming in or if the caller really is a tenant? I have been getting crank calls on my business line (i assume from someone that i evicted 3 months ago, who flushed enough diapers down the drain to cause the sewage problem I was just talking about.)
BTW, if anyone needs a plumber, let me know. I have great faith in Andy, a Polish immigrant who is also taking computer science right now (though frankly, I think you get paid a lot more as a plumber).
I am a big fan of zipcar and am trying to get everyone on the bandwagon. With the possibility of the upcoming MTA strike, zipcar has set up free pick up and drop off points in the city.
Personally, not having a car is one of the better things about living in NY, especially with my mode of transportation of choice available to me. But since i became a landlord, there are a lot of things that need moving and a lot of space, like the new Ikea kitchens I put in. One of the times when people actually need a big SUV. Well, I got zipcar for my property business, and as a business account, any of my tenants can sign up for $25/year instead of $50/month. And you get cars for a big discount of $8/hour for weekday travel. I know i’m going to be getting one just in case for this weekend.
Sorry, been a long time since I rapped at ya. The tribulations of being a landlord and a more than full time worker (not to mention a tenant) in New York is enough to keep one away from ye olde blog. Actually, I’ve had an empty apartment for almost two months because I’ve been a little hesitant to pull the trigger on a contractor for the floors. I’ve also been waffling between two options:
1. Put in new bamboo flooring .
2. Sand and refinish the current subfloor.
I decided today to use the current subfloor. My main attraction to the bamboo was its renewability, but a friend of mine reminded me “The most renewable thing you can do is use what’s already there.”
The other thing is that bamboo can be soft, and putting in new floor in a rental is a heartbreak waiting to happen.
We have gotten some great goodies from Build it Green recently and I hope to put those in. We found some great stainless steel mirrors and some lights.
I hope to have quite a few before and after pics here for your consumption.