Private managers of some federally subsidized housing projects in New York City are failing to remedy health and safety issues in their buildings. Many tenants are scared to speak up, afraid they’ll lose their subsidy.

Manhattan North manages 3,000 apartments subsidized through the federal Project-Based Rental Assistance program. There’s nearly one open housing code violation for every unit in the company’s portfolio. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

This is part two of an investigative series on the Project Based Rental Assistance Program in New York City. To read part one: “The Compliance Crisis,” click here. This series was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

Maria needed to transfer apartments. Every time it rained, water came running into her Manhattan two-bedroom from above the windows.

When her family came over for dinner one night, they were interrupted by dripping ceilings. They pushed all of the furniture to the center of the room to keep it dry. “That was embarrassing to me,” said Maria, who asked City Limits not to use her real name out of fear of retaliation from her landlord.

First came damage to her furniture. Her couch, bed, and curtains were ruined. She documented everything. She asked her property manager, Manhattan North, to repair the leaks. But management insisted, Maria says, that it couldn’t be leaking rainwater because she wasn’t on the top floor.

Mold grew. Her kids, 6 and 8 years old, started getting sick. Coughing, they had to stay home from school, which meant paying for a babysitter.

“I don’t know why they make my life so difficult,” Maria said.

She’s one of 100,000 tenants in New York’s Project Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) program, some of whom live in unsafe conditions, according to city data and reports to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), obtained via a Freedom of Information Law request.

PBRA tenants—predominately low-income residents of color, many of whom are seniors or living with a disability—already face enormous challenges communicating with their property managers to retain their housing subsidies, a City Limits investigation published earlier this week showed.

Noncompliance from property managers also creates persistent housing quality issues that can go months without resolution, and threaten resident safety in some buildings, according to public records uncovered by City Limits. Tenants say they are scared to speak up, or risk getting hit with an eviction notice.

Weeks went by without Manhattan North fixing Maria’s issue. She got a note from the doctor about her kids’ risk of developing asthma and went to the company’s management office demanding a transfer.

“When I went to [the property manager], she said ‘Oh yeah, you’re gonna sign your new lease—but you owe us almost $7,000 in rent,’” Maria said.

Maria didn’t know how that was possible. She worked as a home health attendant and had steady income. She had been paying rent on time each month.

But a year and a half ago, unbeknownst to her, Manhattan North had terminated her federal housing subsidy because the income they had on file didn’t match what they saw in their records—a centralized HUD system that pulls information from public assistance databases.

Her subsidy through the PBRA program had enabled her to pay 30 percent of her income in rent, while the government picked up the rest. But when her income didn’t match, Manhattan North—which did not respond to multiple requests for comment from City Limits—pulled the subsidy and started charging her market rate.

Then they filed for eviction.

Unsafe conditions, little recourse

Tenants who reach out to get repairs in some PBRA buildings are ignored, avoided, or given the runaround. When things go wrong with their housing subsidies—as they often do, City Limits found—management sometimes tries to toss them out.

Across over 400 properties and 65,000 units, New York’s PBRA buildings are aging. The program, which began in 1974, has remained much the same since its inception. HUD contracts with the state Housing Trust Fund Corporation, which hires a monitor—a private corporation called CGI—and subsidizes tenants in buildings managed by private owners.

In leases from HUD, and under New York City law, property managers are responsible for providing a habitable apartment and addressing repairs. But advocates say the private management model, and a lack of close supervision, has incentivized some PBRA managers to defer maintenance.

“The core of the problem is that these private companies are profit motivated, and they are going to do whatever they can to maximize profit—that’s chronic with landlords who are not going to do repairs,” said Ashley Viruet, a supervising attorney at Legal Services NYC.

Conditions in PBRA buildings vary. Some are held up as shining examples of affordability, like Manhattan Plaza, the iconic Chelsea home for artists and families that birthed talents like Alicia Keys and Timothee Chalamet. Others are part of the Mitchell-Lama affordable rental program that, long heralded by politicians as an example of affordable housing, is not without its own warts.

But the large majority of PBRA properties are scarcely noticed in the affordable housing landscape: smaller, privately managed buildings sprinkled throughout Harlem, the Bronx, and Central and East Brooklyn. The average building was constructed in 1947. 

Across New York City’s PBRA portfolio, there’s an open housing code violation for every fourth unit, according to city records. In the most recent HUD physical inspection data, one-quarter of the city’s PBRA properties had a life threatening health and safety deficiency noted.

Some properties are in far worse shape than others.

At the Parkhill Apartments in Staten Island, there have been more than 10,000 housing code violations issued over the past 10 years. Michael Shah, founder of Delshah Capital that owns the property, said the building is in the pipeline for comprehensive rehab from the city’s Department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD). 

There have been 400 violations at Parkhill just this year, SI Live reported, with over 3,000 of them more serious “Class C” violations that include immediate health and safety issues. In all, there were 12 violations issued for every unit over the past decade, with 2,000 still outstanding.

At Manhattan North’s properties, the picture is similarly bleak.

Across the company’s 3,000-unit PBRA portfolio, there’s nearly one open housing code violation for every unit. A quarter of violations issued since 2016 were serious “Class C” violations that pose immediate threats to resident health.

At the 1775 Houses in Harlem, where there are 250 units, there’s been almost nine violations for every unit over the past decade, with 321 violations still open. According to notes from CGI (the program’s monitor in New York), Manhattan North bullied, harassed, and left one tenant to wallow in an unsafe apartment there. 

The 1775 Houses span two blocks between East 126th and East 128th Streets, from Lexington Avenue to Park Avenue in East Harlem. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

The tenant, Lisa Grant, had lead, multiple leaks, and mold in her unit, records from inspections by New York City’s Department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD) indicate.

Manhattan North did not respond to the complaint for at least six months, according to notes from CGI. Grant sued to get repairs done in November 2023, court records show.

In reports from program monitor CGI, sent to the New York State Department of Housing and Community Renewal, representatives who receive tenant complaints via CGI’s call center flagged their “extreme concerns with this managing agent, Manhattan North.” 

“Tenant concerns are often health and safety concerns that go unaddressed for extended periods of time while attempting to get a response from management,” CGI reps wrote. 

“Residents often complain no one is following up with health and safety concerns reported to management and the call center can confirm as we also don’t get responses. The call center believes this matter should be escalated with HUD to address directly.”

HUD and CGI did not respond to questions about Manhattan North’s management practices, and HUD did not provide details on how it responded to CGI’s reports. Manhattan North did not reply to detailed questions from City Limits about repair issues and alleged harassment by staff at their buildings.

On CGI’s management evaluations, which City Limits obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request, most property managers pass the portions of their evaluations when it comes to maintenance and lead paint rules. But advocates say those reports do little to actually inform HUD about management policies and building conditions. 

For example, management agents are evaluated on if they follow the proper eviction procedures. But, “it’s a yes or no check box, and they take [the property manager’s] self reported answer,” said Molly Rockett, a staff attorney and Project Based Section 8 housing specialist at Legal Services NYC. 

CGI did not respond to detailed questions from City Limits about how they fill out audits or pass properties on their HUD-mandated Management and Occupancy Reviews, including those that pass while having outstanding housing code violations and physical inspection deficiencies.

“[CGI reps are] not really incentivized to represent the tenant’s interest against this overpowering force of the property manager,” said Rockett. 

When they ask for help, tenants are routinely bounced between a network of different entities responsible for overseeing the program, which City Limits will detail in part three of this series.

Lexington Gardens at 127 E. 107th St. in Manhattan. HPD issued over 1,000 housing code violations at the 100-unit building in the last 10 years, city data shows. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Renters in the PBRA program are entitled to the same safe living standards as any other renter in New York. When something goes wrong, they can call 311 and get the city to issue a housing code violation.

As violations pile up, tenants can withhold rent, or sue for repairs (In New York City PBRA buildings in the last 10 years, over 800 tenants have filed emergency legal suits to get repairs.)

But for PBRA tenants, the company controlling the flow of their rental subsidy is the same one in charge of maintenance, giving property managers considerable leverage, housing advocates say. 

Two other tenants at PBRA buildings said that hard-to-reach management made getting repairs done more difficult. Nicole E., who preferred only to be identified by her first name and last initial, said that it “takes a long time to get things fixed,” at her Manhattan North apartment building, Lexington Gardens. “It’s like pulling teeth.”

She says that the management office at Lexington Gardens is often backed up, which can make it difficult to get help, with both repairs and recertification.

HPD issued over 1,000 housing code violations at the 100-unit Lexington Gardens building in the last 10 years. The property had 50 open violations as of publication.

Tenants said speaking up sometimes makes them a target. “I call HPD. I call the city. And they [management] don’t like that,” said Maria.

A spokesperson for HPD told City Limits that they treat complaints and housing code violations in PBRA buildings the same way they do any private building. HPD emphasized that they have several tools they can use to address issues, including litigation, the alternative enforcement program, and emergency repair program, where HPD makes repairs themselves and charges the landlords.

Bridgett Simmons, staff attorney at the National Housing Law Project, says repair issues in PBRA housing are a national problem. It took a years-long, nationwide organizing effort to get Atlanta-based Millenia Housing, a negligent PBRA and Section 8 landlord, barred from future federal contracts.

“That’s allowed to abound because HUD isn’t empowered to enforce its condition standards,” said Simmons.

Nowhere to go

It’s often compounding quality of life issues that wear tenants down.

Maria’s Manhattan North-managed building was a hot-spot for drug trafficking and violence, making it scary for her and her kids to venture out of the apartment. The stairwells, she said, were littered with condom wrappers and filled with secondhand smoke.

One man would come to her door and harass her, leaving condoms outside on her welcome mat, following her home, and on one occasion, physically grabbing her and trying to enter her apartment. 

“He waited for me to come back upstairs. So I saw him moving in back of me, he pulled me by the sweater, and I fell down. I started screaming,” she recalled. A neighbor came out with a bat and scared the harasser away.

After Maria made multiple police reports, she asked to transfer apartments. But management said the best they could do was move her to another unit in the same building. On the other side of the building a few floors down, she still didn’t feel safe from her harasser, until he was arrested two years ago for a separate offense. 

One problem soon replaced another, though. That’s when Maria’s new apartment started to leak. A second transfer, from the apartment with the leaking window, was held up by paperwork errors.

Maria knew the income mismatch—which Manhattan North terminated her PBRA subsidy over—wasn’t her fault. Like many others, she lost her job during the pandemic. Since her rent is tied to her income, it went down while she searched for a new job and lived on unemployment.

When she got re-hired in 2021, she said she brought a letter from her new employer to Manhattan North’s management office. But they never processed it.

Maria went on paying the same monthly rent. “But something in my heart was telling me that something was gonna go wrong,” she said.

She didn’t hear from management for a year and a half, when they notified her that her subsidy had been terminated because of the discrepancy over her recorded income.

Paperwork errors by private managers of the PBRA housing in New York City are common, City Limits documented. But PBRA’s unique private management structure creates additional complications.

Many PBRA developments have just one building. And since PBRA subsidies are tied to a particular unit, they are hard to move.

Tenants in other federally subsidized housing programs in New York, like public housing or housing choice vouchers, have more options—there are far more units to choose from in NYCHA or on the private market with a voucher.

But for tenants like Maria, there’s little flexibility. 

“If there is an issue—your apartment is uninhabitable, you are living with a domestic abuser and you need to get out of that situation—there’s really nowhere for you to go,” said Viruet.

After Manhattan North filed for eviction, Maria filed a suit of her own demanding outstanding repairs be made. After she found help in housing court from Legal Services NYC, Maria won a settlement in 2024 that promised her a transfer, abated her rent because of the repair issues, and reinstated her subsidy.

“I have the rights and I don’t care. I’m not here for them to like me. I’m not here to like them either. I’m here because they need to fix my stuff,” she said.

Many times, tenants can’t afford to make a fuss. If they leave, they have nowhere to go, and they would be giving up their subsidy: a lifeline in New York’s bursting housing market. The lack of alternatives for tenants puts management in a powerful position, advocates say.

“I wish I could move from here,” Maria said. “But rent is really expensive right now, and I cannot afford to pay, like, $2,000 myself.”

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Patrick@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post The Repairs Crisis in NYC’s Project Based Rental Assistance Program appeared first on City Limits.

By PAUL WISEMAN, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. jobs openings were essentially unchanged million last month amid economic uncertainty arising from President Donald Trump’s trade policies and an impending government shutdown.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that job openings blipped up to 7.23 million from 7.21 million in July. Economists had forecast a drop to 7.1 million.

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The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed that layoffs fell month. But so did the number of people quitting their jobs — which is a sign of confidence in their prospects.

Job openings remain at healthy levels but have fallen steadily since peaking at a record 12.1 million in March 2022 as the U.S. economy roared back from COVID-19 lockdowns.

The U.S. job market has lost momentum this year, partly because of the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve in 2022 and 2023 and partly because President Donald Trump’s trade wars have created uncertainty that is paralyzing managers trying to make hiring decisions.

Labor Department revisions earlier this month showed that the economy created 911,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the year that ended in March. That meant that employers added an average of fewer than 71,000 new jobs a month over that period, not the 147,000 first reported. Since March, job creation has slowed even more — to an average 53,000 a month.

On Friday, the Labor Department is expected release numbers on September hiring and unemployment — though the report could be postponed if a budget impasse in Congress leads to a government shutdown Wednesday.

If the report comes out, it is expected to show that employers added 50,000 jobs in September, unimpressive but up from a meager 22,000 in August, according to a survey of economists by the data firm FactSet. The unemployment rate is expected to stay at a low 4.3%.

At their last meeting two weeks ago, Fed policymakers cut their benchmark interest rates for the first time this year to support the sputtering job market. They also signaled that expect two more rate cuts this year.

By MAKIYA SEMINERA

On her first full day of preschool, Alexander Lane’s 3-year-old daughter stayed in the car for an hour at drop-off because she didn’t want to go inside. On the second day, she entered class in tears.

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But by the third day, she eagerly ran into the classroom.

Starting preschool or kindergarten is a milestone, but also a source of anxiety for some children, including many who are experiencing their first extended period of time away from a parent or guardian.

Lane already knew his daughter was nervous about being away from her parents. She had resisted going to a couple of classes several months ago, so Lane decided to give her a break before enrolling her in preschool.

“It’s not productive to tell someone, ‘You’ll just enjoy this if you push through and do it.’ Like, that’s not very persuasive,” said Lane, of Minneapolis.

Separation anxiety is not uncommon, especially for young children. In fact, experts say that it’s a natural part of growing up.

“As we’re starting a new school year, we’re going into a new classroom, our routine is changing … there’s going to be some of this anxiety and time that you would expect that a child would need to transition,” said Erica Lee, a psychologist at Boston Children’s Hospital.

But if a child demonstrates symptoms of separation anxiety for prolonged periods of time, it can hinder their daily activities and may need a clinical diagnosis. Here’s some steps to acclimate young kids to school and make drop-off easier.

Teaching kids — and parents — to be brave

In almost two decades of teaching preschool, Kimberly Skukalek, of Pinellas County, Florida, would have a handful of children every year who experienced separation anxiety. Her goal was to show that school was a safe space where they could make new friends.

And that message wasn’t just for anxious children — it was for the parents too, she said.

“Some parents … especially if it’s their first kiddo, they’re more scared than the kiddo is,” Skukalek said.

Parents who feel their children cannot handle a difficult situation can prevent them from building resilience, said Izabela Milaniak, a psychologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Giving into a child’s fears, such as letting them avoid school, often worsens separation anxiety because the avoidance breeds more distress, Milaniak said.

That’s why she reinforces with parents the importance of raising brave kids. Having children confront scary situations — being alone in this case — shows them they are capable of doing tough tasks, even if it’s uncomfortable.

“It’s giving them opportunities to learn how to self-soothe, to learn how to be alone, which is part of what we all as humans need to learn,” Milaniak said.

Milaniak suggests a two-pronged approach for a child already dealing with separation anxiety: Validate their feelings, but stay firm. Treating a child’s anxieties with respect is important, but “compassionate limit-setting” is essential to building their confidence.

When Patrick Edmondson’s child, Miles, started preschool in 2023, the 3-year-old would resist getting ready in the morning and become emotional when it came time to separate from his parents. While Edmondson and his wife had empathy for their son’s fears, he said they didn’t want to indulge his anxiety by allowing him to skip school.

“If he was really having a problem, that option exists, but we don’t really disclose that to him,” said Edmondson, of Washington, D.C., said. “If that was the case, he would just say ‘I don’t want to do it. It’s too scary, I don’t want to go today.’”

Miles’ parents implemented a few tactics to help their son, including offering reassurance that they would come back for him. Another tool was letting Miles choose a “bravery toy,” that made him feel safer at school, such as a Hot Wheels car or a stuffed animal, Edmondson said.

Now in kindergarten, Miles rides the bus to school, and he loves it, Edmondson said.

Gradual exposure and building routine

Gradually exposing a child to separation can help them become more comfortable with it, Lee said. Parents can start by doing short bursts of separation — such as going into another room for 5 minutes — to build their child’s tolerance. As a child gets used to it, parents can increase the length of time within reasonable limits.

Creating a brief goodbye ritual can also benefit a child dealing with separation anxiety, Lee said, because it creates a sense of routine without dragging out a parent’s departure.

Lane, the father from Minneapolis, eased his daughter’s transition into formal preschool by having her attend half-day classes over the summer.

They spend Sunday night talking about what activities she might do in class, as well as packing her lunch and picking out her outfit together, which makes her more comfortable, he said.

“That kind of gets her involved so it’s not just something happening to her,” he said.

Pay attention if anxiety persists for weeks

Many of the symptoms of separation anxiety revolve around delaying or preventing separation from a caregiver. That could mean a child throws tantrums at school drop-off, follows their parent around the house or resists sleeping in their own room.

“That fear of separation is really rooted in a child being scared that something bad will happen to their parents or something bad will happen to themselves if they are apart from their caregivers,” Lee said.

When separation anxiety persists for several weeks or months, Lee said it may be time to check in with a pediatrician. But it’s also something she said kids can overcome at any age because it is “highly treatable.”

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Live events are pricey to begin with, but face value is just the start. Add hidden fees, inflated resale prices and dynamic pricing, and your night out just got a whole lot more expensive.

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There are supposed to be guardrails to prevent surprises at checkout, and regulators have tried to address these issues.

On May 12, a new Federal Trade Commission rule went into effect barring bait-and-switch pricing and other tactics that obscure total prices for live-event ticket costs. It requires businesses to advertise all mandatory fees or charges in the total price.

But the rule is far from foolproof. On Sept. 18, the FTC sued Live Nation, accusing it and Ticketmaster of coordinating with brokers to allow them to use thousands of proxy bot accounts to purchase large ticket blocks, which were then resold at high markups. The suit also alleges that prices were advertised at lower amounts than what consumers actually paid.

It’s a big deal because Live Nation and Ticketmaster, under the joint ownership of Live Nation Entertainment, control roughly 80% of the event ticket sales market. That means if you’ve bought a ticket for a live event in the past, chances are you’ve handed money over to Live Nation Entertainment.

Last year, the Department of Justice sued Live Nation Entertainment on antitrust grounds for a range of allegations that impact what consumers pay, including its bevy of added fees and locking out competition through long-term, exclusive contracts with major venues.

While lawsuits play out in court, shows play on, so it helps to know what you can do to avoid overpaying.

There are still gaps that drive up costs

Tacked-on fees increase the total you’ll pay. Guidelines around fee transparency doesn’t mean there are no fees — it just means you’ll see them upfront. On top of the event ticket itself, you’ll still pay any mandatory fees like a service/convenience fee, order processing fee and venue fees. There also may be credit card processing fees, an electronic delivery fee, a promoter fee, premium seat fees and more.

Resale ticket markups. The resale market isn’t exempt from fees. On top of some of the fees listed above, resale platforms could tack on a broker/reseller fee or a transfer fee. Depending on the platform and the demand for an event, tickets could cost much more than the original advertised price if you had purchased them through the event’s official ticketing platform.

Dynamic pricing. Data-driven algorithms are used to monitor demand for tickets and adjust prices in real-time. It means you’ll pay more for high-demand events or during peak periods. But buying during off-peak periods means you could also pay less than you otherwise would have.

How to find fair-market tickets

The reality is, added fees aren’t going anywhere, but you can minimize paying outsized prices for shows and events.

Buy early

Buying early secures your seat and could also mean you score a discount. If an event you really want to go to is expected to sell out, getting a ticket early could also prevent you from having to pay high markup on the resale market.

“You can be cognizant of every single presale and avail yourself of it,” says Dean Budnick, writer, podcaster and co-author of “Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped.”

Artists and event promoters often host presales, advertised on email lists or social media. Ticketmaster also hosts a “Verified Fan” system to reduce ticket purchases by bots and resellers. Ahead of certain shows or tours, fans can register with Ticketmaster, which must approve your “verified” status. The company then provides, at random, some registered fans to receive presale access codes.

Credit card holders can also take advantage of presales for sports, concerts and other entertainment events.

All the major credit card companies offer their own branded presale and event access options, including Amex Experiences, Chase Experiences, Citi Entertainment, Mastercard Priceless and Capital One Entertainment. Check your card’s benefits page to find out what you might be eligible for.

“If a consumer were to make oneself aware of all of the possible presales, where a lot of that inventory is going to disappear before the ‘general sale,’ I think that’s helpful,” Budnick says.

Buy directly through venues

Going straight to the source — be it venue, theater, teams or performers — can help you avoid unnecessary markups through secondary resell platforms. It’s most likely that venues will have official partners (like Ticketmaster) to sell tickets, but going to the source means you’ll know the tickets you’re purchasing are legit.

Sign up for venue newsletters or follow performers on social media for on-sale dates and links to purchase tickets. Sports teams also sell tickets directly through their official websites.

Direct sales aren’t necessarily a deal, but they can help you avoid inflated secondary market prices or dicey private resellers.

Day-of-sale

Sometimes you can score last-minute deals if a fresh batch of seats is released the day of the event or if there are unsold tickets.

Even sold-out shows can sometimes drop new tickets for what are known as “production holds” — seats that are set aside so event organizers have room to adjust the performance setup, like lighting, sound, special effects and cameras. Sometimes, even hours prior to a show, production hold seats are released, says Budnick.

“I know that happened with Lady Gaga at Madison Square Garden,” says Budnick. “Those shows were sold out and then they released some production seats and not only that, they actually released some really good seats.”

Secondary market prices tend to be more expensive over time, that is, until it’s crunch time. “Sometimes when you get closer to the show, especially people who are not professional scalpers who just invested their own money, they lose their nerve a little bit and they’re happy to take whatever they can.”

Waiting until the last minute doesn’t always work in your favor, but if you’re willing to take the gamble, you could end up paying less.

Track prices across legitimate resale platforms

Stick to trusted resale platforms like SeatGeek, StubHub or Vivid Seats that offer buyer protection and guarantees that unofficial sellers don’t. Ticketmaster also has its own resale market to securely sell and buy verified tickets.

To save time and money, try aggregator sites like TicketIQ, which pull listings from multiple resale marketplaces so you can compare prices all at once. These tools show you how prices are trending and you can set up alerts when new inventory is available. No matter where you buy, review the full cost breakdown, including fees, before completing your purchase.

Private purchases through social media, Facebook Marketplace and sites like Craigslist are always at-your-own-risk. Unlike established resale platforms, you don’t have buyer protections. If a ticket is fake or unusable, you could be out of luck.

Is event ticket insurance worth it?

Before the checkout screen on most ticketing websites, you’ll be offered event insurance. Whether you take it is up to how risk-averse you are or your tolerance for added fees. For example, Ticketmaster offers “Event Ticket Protector” through Allianz Global Assistance; it charges 10% of ticket prices.

Event insurance can be useful under the right circumstances, but often it’s a cost that doesn’t pay off for standard shows.

If you’re traveling for an event or if the tickets are very expensive, then event insurance could be worth it. Allianz reimburses for things like certain illnesses or injuries, traffic accidents, mechanical breakdowns, plane delays, layoffs, jury duty, military duty or caregiving. But you will need to follow a process to make an insurance claim on a ticket for a missed event, one that may include documentation.

You also won’t be able to recoup your money if you decide you don’t want to go or if the weather is bad, for example. If the venue or entertainer cancels the event, you’ll usually get your money back or have the ticket honored for another date.

Anna Helhoski writes for NerdWallet. Email: anna@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @AnnaHelhoski.

The article How to Avoid Getting Overcharged for Live Events originally appeared on NerdWallet.