Ask Altagracia: Can a landlord prohibit me from charging my e-bike in my apartment?
- The terms of a rent-stabilized lease have to remain the same each year unless the law changes
- There's no ban on indoor e-bike charging so the rider for your lease renewal is illegal
In a completely unregulated apartment, landlords have free rein to add any terms to a renewal lease that are not explicitly outlawed.
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Can my landlord add a lease rider to legally prevent me from charging my e-bike in my rent-stabilized apartment?
Lease renewals are guaranteed for rent-stabilized tenants, and the terms of your lease have to remain the same from year to year, unless there’s a new law that authorizes a landlord to make changes, said Altagracia Pierre-Outerbridge, an attorney and founder of Outerbridge Law who represents residential landlords, tenants and condo owners.
In your scenario, “there is no ban on possession of covered batteries that would support a change to a rent-stabilized lease,” Pierre-Outerbridge said.
Since the rider is illegal, you do not have to sign the new lease. Instead, you can demand the standard one-page lease renewal from New York State’s Department of Housing and Community Renewal, which regulates rent-stabilized units.
If the landlord doesn’t give you the correct renewal lease, then you can continue paying your current rent until you’ve signed a new lease. And in the meantime, you can file a failure to renew claim with DHCR and attach your renewal lease. The state agency will then determine whether the lease is legal and inform your landlord that they have to offer a new lease within a certain time frame.
If you move to a market-rate apartment, the situation would be different. Legally, a landlord of a market-rate unit can include a lease provision that prohibits indoor e-bike charging, at least in an initial lease. If they add it to a renewal lease in an apartment covered by the new Good Cause Eviction law, it’s more of a gray area.
“You still have a legal argument that they’re changing the terms of the tenancy,” Pierre-Outerbridge added, but you don’t get the same kind of protections for renewal leases as stabilized tenants. In a completely unregulated apartment, landlords have free rein to add any terms to a renewal lease that are not explicitly outlawed, so you would likely be out of luck.
Many New York City building management companies added e-bike policies last year, following a spate of more than 200 fires sparked by lithium e-bike batteries in 2023. The New York City Housing Authority even proposed banning e-bikes for its 528,000 residents. Earlier this year, it rolled out a more lenient policy that allowed residents to charge one e-bike battery at a time in an apartment, and an adult must be present and awake while it’s charging.
Co-op and condo boards have the right to forbid shareholders and owners from charging their e-bike batteries inside apartments. Some boards have tried to ban e-bikes in their buildings outright, while others created secure outdoor bike parking or fireproof concrete rooms for bikes indoors.
You should also be aware that NYC added a new law last year to regulate the sale of e-bikes, electric scooters and their batteries. Local Law 39 requires that all e-mobility devices and batteries sold or leased in the city must be certified by Underwriters Laboratories, a nonprofit that sets safety standards for a broad array of products.
The measure does appear to be working, albeit modestly so far. As of Sept. 30th, battery fires caused three deaths and 84 injuries this year, down from 14 deaths and 114 injuries during the same period in 2023, according to the FDNY as reported by The New York Times. Fewer battery fires are happening inside buildings than last year after fire officials repeatedly urged New Yorkers to charge their e-bike and e-scooter batteries outside, according to the report.
Altagracia Pierre-Outerbridge, Esq. is the owner of Outerbridge Law P.C. While Outerbridge Law focuses primarily on tenant representation, the firm is also well versed in landlord representation and represents all sides in landlord-tenant litigation and transactional matters such as month-to-month holdovers, nuisance cases, owner’s use cases, licensee cases, harassment claims, repair cases, tenant buyouts, succession claims, DHCR overcharges and rent reductions and more. With nearly 15 years of experience litigating in Supreme, DHCR, and Housing Court, Pierre-Outerbridge has finely developed her legal skills to deliver superior results to her clients and founded Outerbridge Law P.C. to drive this mission. To submit a question for this column, click here.
To contact Outerbridge Law P.C. directly, call 212-364-5612 or 877-OUTERBRIDGE, or schedule a meeting today.
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