Alanna Schubach
Contributing writer
Contributing editor Alanna Schubach has over a decade of experience as a New York City-based freelance journalist. She has written about real estate for Brick Underground, Mansion Global, and Barron's. She has also contributed features, essays, and op-eds to The Nation, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The Village Voice. She won a National Association of Real Estate Editors’ silver award in 2018 for her Ask an Expert column for Brick Underground. She is also a fiction writer and a creative writing teacher, and currently lives in Brooklyn.
Posts by Alanna Schubach:
I lost my job and got severance. Will this affect my NYC housing lottery application?
December 1, 2020 - 09:30 AM
Eligibility for NYC Housing Lottery apartments is determined by Housing Preservation and Development and based on strict income requirements and the size of the household. The application and approval process can take quite a while, so it's not unusual for an applicant's job situation and income to change while they're being considered.
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Ask Sam: I signed a lease with a concession, but when I renewed, my rent jumped by several hundred dollars. Can I fight this?
November 25, 2020 - 09:30 AM
There are currently class action lawsuits alleging that some landlords used rental concessions, which give tenants a period of free rent, in order to get around rent stabilization laws and hit tenants with unexpected rent hikes at renewal time. These lawsuits involve 421-a buildings—developments that received tax abatements, which requires landlords to make all units rent-stabilized until the abatement expires.
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I want to fix up my NYC rental apartment. What kinds of upgrades can I do?
November 23, 2020 - 12:30 PM
You are entitled to make limited, minor changes to your New York City rental apartment, but anything beyond that requires your landlord's permission, our experts say.
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We have headaches and breathing problems because of smoke from my neighbor's fire pit. What can we do?
November 16, 2020 - 12:30 PM
Not only are fire pits illegal on balconies, they're also illegal even for tenants and owners with backyards. Under the city's fire code, fire pits are considered to be open fires, which are prohibited in the five boroughs.
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Ask Sam: I'm month-to-month. Do I have the right to take a roommate that my landlord rejected?
November 11, 2020 - 09:30 AM
Tenants with standard leases are protected by the roommate law, which grants them the right to share their apartment with another adult not related to them, and that adult’s dependent children. Under this law, if there are multiple tenants named on the lease, they can have multiple roommates, as long as the total number of roommates and tenants does not exceed the number of tenants listed on the lease.
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What’s the best way to find an accessible NYC rental building for someone with a disability?
November 9, 2020 - 12:30 PM
Buildings that were built or extensively renovated after 2012 are required to be ADA-compliant.
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