Roommates rights?

Question

I own a Rent Stabilization building in NYC. My tenant asked me if it was ok to have a roomate. I told her ok. However, since this roommate has moved into the building. I found out that she is giving out the building address to her friends in order for them to recive mail on their behalf and they don't even live in the building. Does she have a right to do this? I spoke with the tenant about this and her response to me was that it's none of her business what the roommate does. What is the legal recourse to evict this roommate?

Answer 1

It's illegal to do that. It's quite likely it's being done for job or college reasons (depending upon your tenants ages) but it's still illegal nevertheless. If you don't like that activity going on you should first give the girl a chance and speak to the roommate herself about it. If she continues I'm sure you have enough legal power to make her leave.

Answer 2

so what if they recieve mail?  I doubt that you can evict.  If it causes a disturbance or something like that you may be able to but I dont think you can evict someone for recieving someone elses mail.  If you have people sneaking in and staying there then you have grounds for removal.

Answer 3

If the roommate is not on a lease agreement, you can probably have her removed for trespassing. If you'd rather just solve the problem without necessarily removing the roommate, you can ask the post office to deliver only to residents of the building, and require tenants to post names inside their mailboxes of the people living there. You would probably need to follow up to make sure only those people who actually reside in the unit are listing their names.