Background: I live with my wife on the top floor of a rent stabilized apartment in NYC. We love our apartment, and the rent is low for the neighborhood. Other units in our building rent for 80% more than what we pay. We have previously been offered a lease buyout because they can raise the rent to market rate if we move out. We declined. We are entitled by law to an annual lease renewal, and the percent increase in rent is limited by the NYC rent board (usually 1-3%/year). They can raise the rent extra if they do any work on our apartment. Sometimes landlords will do quick, shoddy cosmetic work to justify rent increases. Also, there is a long standing tradition of NYC landlords enabling poor living conditions in their rentals to induce rent stabilized tenants to move. There are stories of buildings that go without heat or hot water for months, despite that being illegal. We tend not to bring up minor complaints because we don't want to rock the boat. We often fix small things ourselves, or contact our excellent super for medium issues.
Recently, after a big storm, we had some water coming in through our ceiling. We didn't actually see any water come in, but we noticed our couch was wet and there was a dark spot on the ceiling. Obviously water damage is not a minor issue, and something that can affect the long term stability of the building, so we contacted our super. He and the building manager arranged for a roof repair the next day, and we have had no leaking since. They wanted us to let them know when the ceiling in our apartment was dry so they could plaster and paint the area where the water came in. However, we (and they, I think) were blindsided by a sudden change in management company before this could be done. So now we have a new manager and super. I have no idea how they are - whether they will be responsive, whether they will do quality work, whether they will use this as an excuse to raise our rent significantly, etc. There is still a dark spot on the ceiling where the water came in, but I do not care about that. If cosmetics is the only issue, I am inclined to leave it alone.
So how serious is this? Is it okay to leave it now that the roof is fixed, or does the ceiling need to be opened up to look for further damage/dry out more fully?
