Legal Question in Real Estate Law in New York

Lease and Landlord

I recently signed a lease with two of my friends for an apartment in New York City. Before we signed, we made sure that we'd be able to have temporary, pressurized walls put into our apartment to create three bedrooms. We received several quotes for these services ranging from $1000-$1700. When I got in touch with the landlord to set a date to have the walls put up, he notified me that he would only allow union labor to work in the building, and that he could do the job for $1900. There was nothing in the lease about requiring union labor, but he said that it didn't have to be specified in the lease. Each company that we got estimates from had never heard of such a situation. Landlord also said that we would have to pay in cash. I looked at the NYC Carpenter Union website and accepting cash for work is considered corrupt. I got in touch with the company that owned the building (the landlord is independent of the owning company) and all that they offered to do was talk to the landlord to see what was going on. I guess my question is: Where can I go from here? Can the landlord legally prohibit a non-union worker from doing work for us? Shouldn't union worker requirements be stated in the lease? Thanks in advance!


Asked on 6/14/08, 11:21 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Markowitz Michael A. Markowitz, PC

Re: Lease and Landlord

You have to look to the language in the lease concerning construction. If nothing in lease, or in building's rules and regulations, you should be able to use non-union company. Certainly, you do not need to pay in cash!

Mike.

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Answered on 6/15/08, 9:00 am


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