Illustration: Emma Erickson
Welcome to “House Department,” Curbed’s recommendations column by Clio Chang. Join us every other Wednesday for questions about making peace with noisy-sex next-door neighbors, the subtleties of roommate refrigerator rules, and whatever else you might require to understand about leasing, buying, or weeping in the New york city City real estate market.
Got an issue? Email [email protected].
Dear House Department,
We keep our shoes and coats arranged on racks on the landing outside our four-story walk-up– everything is neatly in two coat racks and one shoe rack. But our landlord keeps yelling at us that we’re not allowed to keep things there and that we “don’t lease the landing.” Practically everybody else I understand in NYC keeps things on their landing. He claims it’s a fire threat, but the stairs are completely clear and nobody else is walking through our space to get out (we’re on the leading floor). We truly need the space. How do we persuade him to leave us alone?
Sincerely,
Don’t Tread on My Landing
Dear Tread,
It’s true that a great deal of New Yorkers keep things on their landings. Space is valuable and we require every inch we can get. I’m not here to scold you (I ‘d do it too), and it honestly seems like you have a far more arranged scenario than a lot of. But regrettably the city is on the side of your landlord– a spokesperson for the FDNY confirmed that it protests the fire code to store personal effects in structure corridors and passages. I even asked particularly about top-floor landings and it’s still a no-go: “Storage is not permitted in hallways and on landings,” per the department.
So it’s illegal, however is it actuallydangerous? Is this just Big Landing Propaganda? I turned to Bob Fash, a retired New York City firemen and fire marshal who operated in the department for 25 years, to ask how big of an offer your scenario was, really. He was also unmoved. “They might state it’s clear for individuals to decrease, however it might be a threat for firefighters going up and getting caught on stuff,” Fash said. You may believe the landing is still clear sufficient to move easily however in an emergency, firefighters using and bring a great deal of equipment will need method more space to maneuver than your possibly daintier selves. (Fash told me about a time that a fellow firefighter got his mask bound in a nail salon’s storage racks and got stuck.)
This does not excuse the method your property manager is dealing with the circumstance, if in fact he’s yelling at you about it. (Nobody needs to be shouting in an expert relationship, however maybe you imply “shouting” in a more figurative sense.) He’s most likely more concerned about a prospective fine than your well-being, honestly. However if a city inspector issues him an offense notification, he could technically use this as a factor to start an eviction proceeding versus you, according to Ronald Languedoc, tenant attorney at Himmelstein Gribben & Joseph. It would not come out of no place, though. “If a property manager was going to start an expulsion case, they would need to give the occupant composed notice,” Languedoc stated. “Typically this would be a notification to treat.” So you would get a chance to clear your landing before your landlord might actually kick you out. (Seth Miller, an attorney at Collins, Dobkin & Miller, validated this, writing: “It is difficult to conceive that an occupant would actually lose an apartment or condo over it, especially not without being able to cure it.”)
But do not worry– I’m still here to help. While it might seem there’s no other way your racks filled with coats and shoes could fit inside your house, E.J. Rosen, the founder of the New york city City– based home-organizing business Area Physicians, guarantees us that they can. (In all her career, she’s encountered only one book-collecting occupant in a studio house who was beyond her help.) “It’s always an unusual puzzle, however the puzzle can always be resolved,” Rosen stated. For shoes, Rosen points to tilting cabinets that are best for narrow passageways or clear shoe boxes for the bottom of a closet. Coats are larger, but there are solutions there too. Perhaps it’s about determining what you genuinely need to be available and what can be tucked away for the season. And do not we all have excessive stuff anyhow? Perhaps the version of you with a clear landing is likewise a version of you who has a “capsule closet” and practices meditation every early morning. Best of luck!
Have a concern for the Apartment Department? You can send it to [email protected].
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