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Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

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Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby asbandjls » Sun Nov 06, 2016 10:30 pm

My LL is taking me to Housing Court in Manhattan for nonpayment (five months arrears, he has two months deposit). He did not sign the first, one-year lease. We did not have a lease for second year, he had six months rent from me then so I stayed and paid month-to-month during the second year.

He extended the lease three times, each for one year. He raised the rent first by six percent, then five percent and five percent again.

He falsified the end of the previous Lease in 2013, making it sound like on the Extension that it ended in 2013 June (it ended in 2012 June).

He signed the 2013 Extension in the name of his company, which owns the ten apartment CoOp building. He is the main (perhaps only) shareholder.

He did not sign the 2014 Extension for a year, then he signed in in 2015 June instead of signing the 2015 Extension.

The 2015 Extension was never signed. He cannot create a signature now because the Extension was created electronically and everything is recorded.

He might be able to falsify the Signature (and Witness name and Signature) on the original, 2011 Lease, although he might not dare to do it as he is an attorney. So is his wife.

The first Court date was adjourned and now he is frantically fixing the plumbing in the apartment after he quickly fixed several problems on a ten-item list before the inspector came to see the apartment.

He kept pushing me to settle. I told him that I do not want to talk to him about this without legal representation present but we do talk about repair issues as he hangs out in the apartment quite a lot in the presence of a plumbing worker who does not understand or speak English very well.

Can I use the Unsigned Lease and Extensions to negotiate rent reduction to the earliest values? They kept overcharging me compared to similar apartments but I was not very careful at the time. I also paid one month rent plus two hundred dollars for routine two-hour work to the real estate agent who found this apartment.

The Landlord tried to send in the real estate person to show the apartment to a couple who allegedly wanted to move in on November 15. The real estate person only emailed in the morning that she would come with the couple late afternoon. I talked her out of it and asked the Landlord to tell her what's going on and not to drag her into this at this stage.

The relief agencies cannot provide pro bono lawyers as the rent is very high for a single person. I need to find an attorney and fast. I also asked for a court interpreter as English is not my first language.

I have three weeks before the next court date.

He did not even file with HPB since 2015, so the Inspector could not record his review, and the LL could not register the recently installed fire alarms and smoke detectors. He also appears to have a Tax Lien against the property in his name although his company is the Landlord. This is a CoOp/Condo case. The apartment is not rent regulated since before he purchased the house. The apartment below mine is rent regulated.

They lied about the square footage of the apartment for years, they said it was 750 square feet but according to the floor plan of another apartment in this same wing it is closer to 650 square feet.

Right now there are four empty apartment in this ten apartment house. They had an Open House on Saturday, not many visitors if any.

I want a serious rent abatement, perhaps would like to start a counterclaim.

The Lease is the Blumberg Lease for an Unregulated Apartment written by Adam Leitman Bailey. They added four paragraphs (no smoking, etc.) but left in many unnecessary details (freight elevator for example).

They already blacklisted my name putting it into the court process after I gave them more than one hundred thirty thousand dollars over the past five years so I do not want to give them much more money at this point.

Thanks for all your help and advice.
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Re: Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby TenantNet » Sun Nov 06, 2016 10:34 pm

Got to make this about 60% shorter. Can't read books.
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Re: Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby asbandjls » Sun Nov 06, 2016 10:46 pm

TenantNet wrote:Got to make this about 60% shorter. Can't read books.


Landlord did not sign Lease in 2011 for un-regulated apartment.
There was no Lease for 2012.
He falsified the end date of the Long Lease in 2013 Extension, but signed that one in his company name which owns the CoOp building.
He only signed the 2014 Extension one year late.
The 2015 Extension was never signed and he cannot falsify it now.

Can I use this anywhere in rent abatement request? - I did sign the Lease and the Extensions.

Alas, I could not read that long book myself either and gave him a big book of green dollars in the past five years before I stopped paying rent in May.

Now we are in first adjournment stage and he is frantically fixing problems in the apartment.
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Re: Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby asbandjls » Sun Nov 06, 2016 11:00 pm

TenantNet wrote:Got to make this about 60% shorter. Can't read books.


It is somewhat funny though that you found my short summary too long, while tenants are supposed to read and understand fourteen pages of dense Lease legalese ... and now court documents.

I noticed that shorthand keywords make the case suddenly steer in different direction and the Housing Clerks enjoy their power.

"service was not correct as required by law"
"part of the rent has already been paid to the Petitioner"
" conditions which the Petitioner did not repair"

adjournement, inspection, interpreter,
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Re: Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby TenantNet » Sun Nov 06, 2016 11:03 pm

Seriously, please post something that can be understood (and not too long). Do you know for certain the unit is not rent stab? Have you gotten a rent history from DHCR? How many units in the building? Approx. when was it built? When was it converted to coop? Did you move in before or after the conversion? Is the LL owner of a single unit?, many? the sponsor?

Start with these questions.
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Re: Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby asbandjls » Sun Nov 06, 2016 11:24 pm

TenantNet wrote:Seriously, please post something that can be understood (and not too long). Do you know for certain the unit is not rent stab? Have you gotten a rent history from DHCR? How many units in the building? Approx. when was it built? When was it converted to coop? Did you move in before or after the conversion? Is the LL owner of a single unit?, many? the sponsor?

Start with these questions.


These are easy to answer, but I do not see how they could help me now.
Yes, I now know for certain that the Unit is not rent stab. They stopped reporting rent history to DHCR since it is not rent stab, except for the apartment below mine (I just heard the other day that that was the landlord's original apartment). Ten units in the building. The COE is from 1940 and another one from 1971. The 1940 is most similar to the current house (the 1971 shows one of the first floor apartments as duplex, reaching down into the cellar).
It was built in 1920. It was converted into CoOp in the late eighties. This Landlord (his small company) purchased it in 1994. I moved in in 2011, long after the conversion. The LL owns the entire house, the company ... the person is Managing Officer, Main (perhaps only) Shareholder, Attorney (of the company). His wife is also attorney, they live on the First floor. Two apartments on each floor in a five story house.

Four of the ten apartments are empty at the moment, up for rental, mine is in limbo.

The question is, is the Lease and are all the extensions binding, even though he did not sign some of these? - I saw a discussion thread here, which stated that it is enough if the Tenant signed these, but that was for rent stabilized case.

If none of these are binding, then what's the use of stating on the Extension single page:

The EXTENSION AGREEMENT does not become binding until the return to you of a copy signed by the Landlord.
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Re: Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby TenantNet » Mon Nov 07, 2016 12:38 am

What is COE? Do you mean Certificate of Occupancy?

Stopping registration to DHCR does not mean anything. Don't fall for that.

But if the conversion occurred prior to your moving in, then you would have likely lost any RS status, so I'll assume your regulated.

We ask these questions as substantial numbers of tenants led to believe they are unregulated are in units that legally are still rent stab.

If you're in Housing Court in a non-pay proceeding, why did you stop paying rent? Do you have defenses other than lack of repairs. Are you letting the LL in to make repairs before the inspector shows up? (You can hold the LL off, but not too long). Did the court set a date for an inspector to show up?

We don't know what you mean by Extension Agreement. Is that a document the LL uses?

I'm less interested in your lease issues than with viable defenses and procedure in the NP case. Whether or not is technically valid, or not ... you are still a tenant and still obligated to pay rent.

You implied you had an attorney. What does he/she say about these issues?
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Re: Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby TenantNet » Mon Nov 07, 2016 12:50 am

What is HPB?

Can I use the Unsigned Lease and Extensions to negotiate rent reduction to the earliest values? They kept overcharging me compared to similar apartments but I was not very careful at the time.


You don't get rent reductions in an unregulated apartment. You can get abatements (one-time). It's based on what you are paying, so lease issues aren't that important.

Rents are not uniform ... anywhere. What other units are getting has no bearing on your apartment. It's not an overcharge unless they bill you for more than your lease.

I also paid one month rent plus two hundred dollars for routine two-hour work to the real estate agent who found this apartment.


For what? Agents have nothing to do with your tenancy/repair issues.

The Landlord tried to send in the real estate person to show the apartment to a couple who allegedly wanted to move in on November 15. The real estate person only emailed in the morning that she would come with the couple late afternoon. I talked her out of it and asked the Landlord to tell her what's going on and not to drag her into this at this stage.


So just tell them they can't enter. We've discussed this many times on the forum - and the forum reference section. Access must be by written request, in advance, for a reasonable time, when you are there and so on. Seeriously, do not let them walk over you on this.

PLUS, you haven't been evicted. You don't say if you want to stay or not. Why let someone in that wants to rent the unit when you have no plans on going anywhere. Tell politely them it's not available and then shut the door.
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Re: Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby TenantNet » Mon Nov 07, 2016 12:57 am

He did not even file with HPB since 2015,


Assume you mean HPD. If the building is not registered with HPD, then the LL should not be able to continue the case. Ask the court to discontinue the case as it's not registered,

I want a serious rent abatement, perhaps would like to start a counterclaim.


You have to put in for a counterclaim on your Answer. Did you file an Answer with the clerk when you responded to the Petition? If no to either, ask the court of you can amend your Answer.

The Lease is the Blumberg Lease for an Unregulated Apartment written by Adam Leitman Bailey.


Is AL Bailey representing the landlord in this case, or did he just write the lease? (He's a well-known landlord lawyer).
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Re: Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby asbandjls » Mon Nov 07, 2016 7:13 am

TenantNet wrote:
He did not even file with HPB since 2015,


Assume you mean HPD. If the building is not registered with HPD, then the LL should not be able to continue the case. Ask the court to discontinue the case as it's not registered,

I want a serious rent abatement, perhaps would like to start a counterclaim.


You have to put in for a counterclaim on your Answer. Did you file an Answer with the clerk when you responded to the Petition? If no to either, ask the court of you can amend your Answer.

The Lease is the Blumberg Lease for an Unregulated Apartment written by Adam Leitman Bailey.


Is AL Bailey representing the landlord in this case, or did he just write the lease? (He's a well-known landlord lawyer).


Very good, THANK YOU.

Yes, I did mean HPD. I mistyped it. We went to court at the end of October. I responded to the Housing Clerk a week earlier. Then he gave me the date for the following Thursday and he chose those three points I quoted above in my post, "not properly served", "some of the rent already paid", "repairs needed" as my answer. The LL already sent me an email offering me to settle / asking me to settle before we showed up in Court to which I did not respond. So we only met in the Courtroom after I gave my Oral Answer to the Housing Clerk (quite hastily it appears, but for now it worked out fine - I could have gained a few additional days if I waited a little longer).

I know now that I should have mentioned "counterclaim" then, but I did not prepare very well in spite of suspecting that the LL would take me to court after the summer months.

I also know by now that I can still amend my answer, so I am working on finding out WHEN and HOW. Whether the Judge approves the Counterclaim or not, that is still up to the future.
But I need to find a lawyer in the meantime to look at it. As you can see, I tend to ramble.

I asked for ADJOURNMENT from the Court Attorney at the end of October in the Court Room. We did not even get to see the Judge up close, as the LL was impatient and demanded that we come up next because he claimed he had to leave. She gave us a new date. The LL is the Corporation, but this guy is the Main Shareholder and an Attorney himself. He is not represented by another attorney, not yet anyway.

He kept pushing me to settle while the Court Attorney was on the phone (arranging a date with the Interpreter and then with the Inspector) ... I kept saying NO, we should not even talk here, and then the Court Attorney strictly told us (mostly to him) not to talk to each other when we are not in her presence, when she steps away! She basically wiped the floor with him, she even told him: "counsel, you are an attorney, you should know the answer to that! (he asked if it is going to be over at the next court date).
She also said: "the Tenant could file a motion, the Tenant could appeal".

SO now this Tenant is exploring the options while the LL does hasty repairs.

He just lifted that entire text for the UNREGULATED LEASE and they were even lazy to take out the parts regarding freight elevator, tennis court, parking space, other nonsense. I mentioned this in my post, because you found my first post confusing and long ... that Lease is truly confusing and LONG.

The Court Attorney Lady steered us towards the HPD Web site when the LL asked her where he can look up the results of the Inspection. She gave us the nyc.gov / hpd web site.

Now I see that he was supposed to register the house every year but the last registration is 2014!

OK, so he won't be able to continue this time. Then he will start again and will be better prepared, after he corrects potential violations and registers.

But I do not even want to fight long for this overpriced apartment.
The simple truth is that I run out of money after five years, fortunately only temporarily. They suddenly treated me very badly when I got stuck, partly because he is panicking partly due to his other empty apartments.

He was ill prepared in the court, especially for an attorney who keeps renting apartments in this house since 1994 ... he was overconfident and expected the Judge to evict me within FIVE days and tell me to give him a huge chunk of money at once! He thought he would help me by offering me a settlement but I did not even want to hear it at that point.

Then after we left the courtroom together, he told me that he would come in next day to do repairs. This was on a Thursday. I simply could not say no, I tried to tell him that at least he should wait until next week. The Inspector was supposed to come the Thursday after our meeting in the courtroom.

They did a quick fix of most of the items. The Inspector came ... and made his list.

But the LL was very worried that day, he came in before the Inspector, claiming that it was an emergency repair, someone's apartment below indicated that some pipe leakage might come from my apartment.

Next day they came in again, they took the kitchen sink apart. Fine. The following day, on a Saturday, they opened the wall of the small toilet-bathroom in the apartment. Now it has an open hole and they will come back again to repair that.

He was not interested in repairing anything for FIVE years (I kept complaining most about the inadequate heating ... but there were many other issues too) and now he practically moved in.

I only mentioned the Real Estate Person because she disappointed me the most.

I basically chose / accepted this apartment because I trusted her and knew her family. But on the day when the Inspector came, the LL used the real estate lady to basically harass me ... in the morning she sent me an email that in the evening she wants to show the apartment to a couple who plans to move in on November 15! They do not even understand that right now they are supposed to hold themselves to the Lease and give me at least twenty four hour notice before they want to come in! unless it is a true emergency.

By now they attacked the walls in three apartments to get to the old rusty pipes. So that is an emergency indeed.

Fortunately they put up NEW Smoke Detectors just before the Inspector came in. I see now that the LL should register the smoke detectors on the HPD site. I should pay for the smoke detectors 25 plus 50 dollars (smoke plus carbon monoxide detector). I looked it up, I have one year to pay up for these two. The Red Cross would have given these for free on the day when they did the quickie repairs but I did not notice that they had a meeting at the local Councilman's office.

But he could not even register them now before registering the house again. His last registration is 2014, and he was supposed to register every year.

This is what the HPD site says about this address;

"This building has filed records with the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal at least one time from 1993 to the present year and may contain one or more regulated apartments."

When I try to go through the motions to register the smoke detectors, it states that currently there is no valid registration for the house.

So I will try to get the case dismissed for now, due to the lack of registration with HPD. Perhaps they will do it anyway and instruct him to do the registration properly and finish the repairs.

That will gain me a little time but I no longer want to fight this apartment. It is overcharged at the current rate especially with ten percent late fee added.

That is why I would like to see how much lower he should go with the amount he demands from me now.

He already put my name into the court process so the least I can do is take advantage of the law if there is anything what can be used on my side now.

I checked out the web site of Adam Leitman Bailey.

He is scary. Perhaps I will call him and ask him if he makes an exception and would represent a tenant, ME. Or if he would at least do a paid consultation and find something wrong with using his Lease so inappropriately. It is very LANDLORD friendly.
Last edited by asbandjls on Mon Nov 07, 2016 8:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby asbandjls » Mon Nov 07, 2016 7:57 am

TenantNet wrote:What is COE? Do you mean Certificate of Occupancy?

Stopping registration to DHCR does not mean anything. Don't fall for that.

But if the conversion occurred prior to your moving in, then you would have likely lost any RS status, so I'll assume your regulated.

We ask these questions as substantial numbers of tenants led to believe they are unregulated are in units that legally are still rent stab.

If you're in Housing Court in a non-pay proceeding, why did you stop paying rent? Do you have defenses other than lack of repairs. Are you letting the LL in to make repairs before the inspector shows up? (You can hold the LL off, but not too long). Did the court set a date for an inspector to show up?

We don't know what you mean by Extension Agreement. Is that a document the LL uses?

I'm less interested in your lease issues than with viable defenses and procedure in the NP case. Whether or not is technically valid, or not ... you are still a tenant and still obligated to pay rent.

You implied you had an attorney. What does he/she say about these issues?


I do not have an attorney for this, not yet anyway.

I talked with one attorney on the phone, he was not interested in taking the case at this point. He sued this LL a long time ago and won but then they were still young, both of them, now the attorney can be more choosy!

I also spoke with one attorney in Housing Court about possibly countersueing. He gave me the room numbers and the amounts for Small Claims Court and for Civil Court, but he does not intend to represent me.

I have no valid defense so far, I simply run out of money and could not pay for MAY. So at the end of MAY I told him that I cannot ask him to renew the lease with yet another five percent increase and that I am leaving. I wanted him to use the two months deposit for May and June, but he said "that is against the law". It was indeed mentioned in the Lease that the Tenant is not allowed to use the two months deposit for rent arrears, but the LL could.

I then asked him to come up into the apartment and at least look at everything and let us decide together what was normal tear and wear in this old apartment, what was preexisting issue - he never fixed anything I asked over the five years, but I was not very demanding.

He then said: "we do not do that".

His Superintendent came up then, in June, he kept shouting "I am not a Plumber, I am not an Electrician, why do you want all this fixed all of a sudden if it was fine for five years" ...

I got stuck at the end of June, literally, at first financially, then I became quite ill for a few weeks. This real estate agent woman started to come in, basically nudging me to get out fast, but she did not bring up anyone to actually see the apartment (one potential tenant turned back from the stairs, perhaps she got tired, this is a fifth floor walk-up).

In September they sent me their own version of Eviction notice: Pay up in three days or Leave ... that's when I realized that the wife who also lives in the house, is a lawyer too (she left the papers on my door and she mailed them out). They thought that they would scare me into leaving but at the moment I am still stuck, literally. Fortunately I will have lots of nice options within the upcoming ninety days, much better than this apartment. So I just have to hold out for a few weeks ...and then I will be doing it for a few more weeks just for the fun of it and to get to know the process in case I really need it some day even more than this year.

Then they filed the Housing Court papers, which I received in late October.

I checked and that makes me blacklisted, a bad tenant, just because a case got started against me. After accepting more than one hundred thirty thousand dollars from me over the past five years, he now suddenly could not wait ... and apparently got stuck on his own sword.

Against the law indeed ... while he keeps doing things that are truly against the law. He could have been considerate and said, OK, I will check the apartment and let's make up the paperwork at the end of June that nobody owes anybody anything, or at least not much, only a few hundred dollars perhaps.

So were are here now, Adjournment, he keeps repairing, suddenly he practically moved in!

During daylight hours anyway ... I am working from home, I cannot even make a phone call and I do not want to leave him with my stuff for too long alone.

Most of my stuff is in a warehouse, I do not even care if he takes photographs of the rest (he now keeps photographing the different stages of repairs) ... but I do not want him to poke around the paperwork so I keep packing it up when I step out. Then I do not find anything myself!
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Re: Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby TenantNet » Mon Nov 07, 2016 9:08 am

Back to old habits. I can't/won't read anything taller than my computer screen. I don't have all day to read this. A judge will be more demanding. Learn to be concise, how to form issues and discard things that aren't really important.

You say you've run out of money. I won't lecture you about getting a job, but a judge might. Lack of money is not a defense to a non-pay. Other than some repairs - which might get you a partial abatement and buy you 1-2 adjournments - you need a defense and with all that verbiage, I don't see any defense.

You seem to also get caught up on lease issues. Don't. In general, who did or did not sign the lease is not going to get you anywhere.

If you don't like the LL or the place, then consider moving. I get a sense that's where you're going anyway.
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Re: Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby asbandjls » Mon Nov 07, 2016 9:40 am

TenantNet wrote:Back to old habits. I can't/won't read anything taller than my computer screen. I don't have all day to read this. A judge will be more demanding. Learn to be concise, how to form issues and discard things that aren't really important.

You say you've run out of money. I won't lecture you about getting a job, but a judge might. Lack of money is not a defense to a non-pay. Other than some repairs - which might get you a partial abatement and buy you 1-2 adjournments - you need a defense and with all that verbiage, I don't see any defense.

You seem to also get caught up on lease issues. Don't. In general, who did or did not sign the lease is not going to get you anywhere.

If you don't like the LL or the place, then consider moving. I get a sense that's where you're going anyway.


Thanks. That is exactly what I need to learn but first I need to learn what to be concise about.

You say who signed and who did not sign the Lease (and Extensions afterwards year after year) does not matter much. Then why that useless sentence at the end of the Extension page if it means nothing at all?

I quote again: This extension agreement does not become binding until the return to you of a copy signed by the Landlord.

I went to DHCR, they said (and gave me the printed, signed, stamped pages) that this apartment is NOT rent regulated, while the apartment below mine is rent regulated. He was not even supposed to tell me which apartment was rent regulated, but he decided to be kind and also gave it as a puzzle, because I guessed the wrong apartment. Now when intense repairs are being done on this side of the building, I found out why the apartment below mine is rent regulated and not the others.

You imply that that does not mean much, it might still be rent regulated.

I am not from this country, originally. We do leases on a hand-shake and they seem to work pretty well. I rented apartments in this country before and it never got to this stage, I was always a good tenant.

You wrote that "You say you've run out of money. I won't lecture you about getting a job, but a judge might." ... but the translation is that I deserve to be lectured. You don't know who I am, you don't know what we went through ... the LL could have waited TWO more weeks, and the outcome would have been different. It worked out fine for me in the end ... but it was a difficult summer and it was interesting to learn who your real friends are.

Now he reported himself and keeps frantically repairing his old house, while I am learning from y'all to be concise before I get to talk to the Judge - with the help of an Interpreter!

I actually like the current tenants, only FOUR are left. Wait, we are not the best friends with the CORPORATION's Managing Agent, Attorney, Main Shareholder ... and his Wife now ... they happen to own the building so we can play a little longer, but the sign is written on the wall who has to move within a year.

FOUR empty apartments, one up in the air, in limbo, Four apartments rented by nice tenants, and one is occupied by the Corporation, Managing Agent, Main Shareholder, Attorney (all the same person) and his Wife.

Apparently they have a tax lien also, they had one in the distant past, they had that problem fixed, not they have it for double amount ... whatever that means.
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Re: Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby asbandjls » Mon Nov 07, 2016 9:57 am

TenantNet wrote:
He did not even file with HPB since 2015,


Assume you mean HPD. If the building is not registered with HPD, then the LL should not be able to continue the case. Ask the court to discontinue the case as it's not registered,

I want a serious rent abatement, perhaps would like to start a counterclaim.


You have to put in for a counterclaim on your Answer. Did you file an Answer with the clerk when you responded to the Petition? If no to either, ask the court of you can amend your Answer.

The Lease is the Blumberg Lease for an Unregulated Apartment written by Adam Leitman Bailey.


Is AL Bailey representing the landlord in this case, or did he just write the lease? (He's a well-known landlord lawyer).


I will try to find AL Bailey and ask him if it means anything that the Landlord did not sign the Lease and Extensions.

I found somewhere in Housing Court pages that it could be considered a harassment that the Landlord did not offer a renewal in 2012, even though he still had six months of rent then ... and I was a really quiet tenant. So I lived here without Lease for a year then but in the first half he had six months of rent from me, which I slowly used up, and for the second half I kept paying month after month on time. He did not even have deposit from me or Lease for that second half of the year.

The real estate lady trying to come in with people who would have liked to move in on November 15, and did not even give me 24-hour notice is definitely harassment but very subtle and the LL used someone else for that purpose, so I cannot go very far with that. Besides, they did not show up at the apartment door, I could talk her out of it over the phone and in email, very politely.

They are still listing the apartment along with three other apartments, but they did not designate it for the Open House on Saturday. Not many people came to the Open House, I saw the colleague of the real estate lady sitting on the stoop practically the entire time during the one and a half hour time window.

The Open House for Today is by Appointment only and they did not give a time window.

You might be bored by this long and tedious story but some other readers / posters could also come up with ideas.

As I mentioned, the relief / charity organizations cannot help with pro bono lawyers, because the apartment is Un-Regulated, too big and expensive for a single person.

I also happen to know now that I no longer need pro bono lawyers ... but I could not be sure one week ago.
asbandjls
 
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2016 9:25 pm

Re: Nonpayment - repairs needed, LL did not sign Leases

Postby asbandjls » Mon Nov 07, 2016 7:47 pm

TenantNet wrote:
He did not even file with HPB since 2015,


Assume you mean HPD. If the building is not registered with HPD, then the LL should not be able to continue the case. Ask the court to discontinue the case as it's not registered,

I want a serious rent abatement, perhaps would like to start a counterclaim.


You have to put in for a counterclaim on your Answer. Did you file an Answer with the clerk when you responded to the Petition? If no to either, ask the court of you can amend your Answer.

The Lease is the Blumberg Lease for an Unregulated Apartment written by Adam Leitman Bailey.


Is AL Bailey representing the landlord in this case, or did he just write the lease? (He's a well-known landlord lawyer).


You were right. You steered me in the right direction after you saw the KEYWORDS even though I misspelled HPD.

I poked around a little longer on that HPDONLINE site and this is what I found for the house address:

§27-2107 adm code owner failed to file a valid registration statement with the department as required by adm code §27-2097 and is therefore subject to civil penalties, prohibited from certifying violations, and denied the right to recover possession of premises for nonpayment of rent until a valid registration statement is filed.

The date is 2016/10/25 so it appears to relate to my case. The LL did not have other cases going at the time.

This is earlier date than the day when we met in court but not much earlier.

The Housing Clerk Attorney even steered him to this site when he asked where he can find the Inspection results after the Inspection is done.

Do I have to file a Motion to Dismiss and when? Should I wait for the Court Date and keep checking this page daily? Are they going to know automatically that the case cannot continue until he files a valid registration statement?

That should not take long, so it is possible that he files it any day.

Thanks again, even if this does not work, because he notices the problem tomorrow, this was an interesting find.

This is the Web address, perhaps it helps someone else also.

https://hpdonline.hpdnyc.org/HPDonline/ ... ation.aspx
asbandjls
 
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Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2016 9:25 pm

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