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:
Ask Sam: I saw my apartment on a listing site, but I haven’t received any notice from my landlord. Is that legal?
February 8, 2023 - 12:30 PM
Your landlord is legally required to give you a certain amount of notice about whether or not he’s renewing your lease, based on how long you’ve lived in the apartment, says attorney Sam Himmelstein.
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Ask Sam: A restaurant is moving into my building and taking over a backyard used by tenants. What can we do?
January 25, 2023 - 09:30 AM
Tenant attorney Sam Himmelstein has advice for renters living in a building where a restaurant is moving in and taking over an outdoor space that the tenants had access to.
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Ask Sam: Can I use my rent-stabilized apartment as an Airbnb?
January 11, 2023 - 09:30 AM
NYC's new short-term rental law makes it easier for your landlord to find out if you're renting or subletting your apartment on Airbnb, says tenant attorney Sam Himmelstein.
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Ask Sam: Can my landlord collect rent while he’s trying to evict me?
December 21, 2022 - 12:30 PM
“As a rule, once the case is in court, the landlord can accept rent ‘without prejudice,'” tenant-rights attorney Sam Himmelstein says. “That means the acceptance of rent doesn’t confer or take away anyone's rights. It’s being done to maintain the status quo.”
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Ask Sam: A leak from the unit upstairs flooded my apartment, but the landlord is blaming me. How can I keep my security deposit?
December 7, 2022 - 12:30 PM
A leak is always the landlord’s responsibility unless the tenant damages the plumbing somehow, says tenant attorney Sam Himmelstein. “You can withhold your rent to pursue the abatement and bring an HP proceeding against the landlord to force them to repair the leak and any resulting damages.”
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Ask Sam: Can I get my landlord to pay me to downsize to a smaller apartment?
November 9, 2022 - 13:30 PM
In most cases, it’s unlikely a landlord would offer tenants any payment to downsize, because they have no financial incentive to do so, says Sam Himmelstein, a lawyer at Himmelstein, McConnell, Gribben & Joseph. But there are some exceptions.
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