NEW YORK CITY-It’s been one week since super-storm Sandy rippedthrough the five boroughs, and even though the flood waters havereceded, Lower Manhattan-based real estate attorney AdamLeitman Bailey has seen a surge of phone calls fromlandlords, tenants—even regular everyday folks—about how theirproperties can recover from flood and electrical damage.GlobeSt.com talked with Bailey about what commercial landlords andtheir tenants can do on the legal front.

GlobeSt.com: Let’s say I’m a tenant in a New YorkCity apartment building who was displaced due to storm damage. Do Ihave to pay rent?

Bailey: The warranty of habitability,which state law controls, says you don’t have to pay your rent nomatter what the cause of why you were out. However, if you areliving there, it doesn’t apply. This is only if you are displacedand unable to return to your apartment. If you are at a stage whereyou can’t move back in and you are out, you don’t have to pay anyrent. But let’s say things aren’t 100% and you are living there,then you might get an abatement, but you do have to pay your rent.You may get a discount.