According to the New York Times, Private Investigators are being put to use in a unique and inventive way: helping landlords save thousands of dollars by identifying and locating illegal tenants.
In major cities like New York, tenants can get locked in to rent controlled apartments. Once they move out, the landlord has the legal right to raise the rent by 20% to compete with the city’s rising costs, but the problem is that tenants grow out of their rent-controlled apartment but don’t want to let go of the lease. Often, renters sublet the apartment to family or friends illegally in order to keep their current rate. Renters may even try to earn additional money by renting out their unit for a higher price, making a profit that they will never claim on their taxes, and that rightfully should belong to the landlord.
Landlords in situations like these have very few options if they try to deal with the situation themselves, which is where private investigators come in. By conducting a surveillance investigation, private detectives can determine who is living in which apartment. Surveillance investigations consist of photographing residents and determining the commuter patterns of residents suspected to not be on a lease. A “suspicious” resident would be a young couple living in an apartment held by a single elderly woman.
With the information gained by the private investigators, landlords can begin to take action against illegal tenants, and reclaim their property and income. It takes a skilled investigator to obtain the information in a timely and legal fashion to ensure that all data collected is viable in court.
For more information on private investigations in your area, please visit www.icsworld.com. For more information on this story, visit the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/nyregion/31appraisal.html?ref=detectivesprivate.
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