Posted by blonD.@excite.com on January 14, 2000 at 00:58:04:
i have lived in my apartment in downtown manhattan for about a year and a half...recently i got behind on my rent but i got a new job that would have taken care of the month and one halves rent i was behind on plus the rent in the future. the job was supposed to start this week but i lost it because my landlord locked me out of my apartment after i complained to HPD about him illegally shutting off my electricity and heat. i have been staying with a friend because i have no where else to go-but i am 2 hours away from the city with no transportation and no money. i tried to talk to my landlord but he won't listen to me-he knows he can get more rent from a new tenant because the neighborhood is getting "trendy". i have a standard lease (nyc) that does not expire until the summer. i am at a loss of what to do. i know i should take him to housing court but i am scared to live in the apartment-he was coming in my apartment using the keys every day screaming at either me or my roomate. the day he changed the locks i wasn't there-my roomate was and my landlord and three other men literally physically threw my roomate out of the apartment. they told him if he came back they would break his legs. he tried to go to the police but they did nothing because he was not on the lease (little did we know at the time he was protected under the law because he had lived in the apartment for three months)...anyway, this has been an awful thing to go through and still be going through...i was wondering if there was any way i could take my landlord to a civil court to sue him for damages (lack of heat, lack of electricity, using threats/violence, making me lose my job, changing my locks, taking my home away, taking my roomate's home away...etc...)...i lost my job, i lost my apartment, and i feel i've really been abused by my landlord...i'm not some deadbeat trying to live for free-i lost my job and it took time to get a new one and in that time i got behind on rent...please help me...i need some kind of legal aid that doesn't cost much or is free because i have no money. i don't know what to do or where to go...if you could post some advice here or email me that would be sincerely appreciated...thank you.
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