22-23 49 STREET, Queens, NY, 11105

Don’t live in this guy’s illegal basement apartment

Pros: Tons of space for a studio apartment. Affordable for the area. Cons: The apartment lock is the equivalent of a lock in any random room in a house—can be easily opened with a bobby pin, can be easily kicked down, and no deadbolt. When I moved in I was told the owner would have to come down to my basement apartment occasionally to deal with the water heater but he’d always text me first—this turned out to be a lie. I was often out of the apartment, working, etc and I’d get texts from him “can I go down to the water heater?” so I assumed he was sticking to what he said, but one day he barged in while I was asleep in my bed with his dad to then text me frantically “I swear I’ve never done that before”. He and his wife got into the most intense fights I’ve ever heard in my life constantly, and often right above my bed, keeping me up/waking me up. Their kid is equally loud and out of control. Thinnest walls I’ve ever seen. He told me when I signed the lease that I could pay rent with cash or personal check—I paid with check twice and he texted me “I’d really rather prefer you pay with cash” so I quickly figured out there was no way this was a legal unit. To make it all the more sketchy, I had to slide my $1,000+ under his door each month IN CASH with no receipt or knowledge of him getting my payment. Makes sense since that it was illegal as there was no way to put in A/C and in the summer with no real windows I’d often get heat sickness. No doorbell or buzzer for the basement unit. Advice to landlord: Don’t rent out the basement OR upgrade the unit with thicker ceilings and walls, some kind of A/C capability, and a way to make the water heater available to you without having to go into the unit. Also put a real lock and padlock on the door, and maybe a real doorbell or buzzer. Stop literally beating up your wife and child in loud and obvious ways. Allow subletting.