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

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

Bailey: The warranty of habitability, which state law controls, says you don’t have to pay your rent no matter what the cause of why you were out. However, if you are living there, it doesn’t apply. This is only if you are displaced and unable to return to your apartment. If you are at a stage where you can’t move back in and you are out, you don’t have to pay any rent. 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.