Help! Slumlord with no C of O.

[Antioquia]

Hi, I have a landlord from hell so any help would really be appreciated. I rented a house Queens it's supposedly a 2 family with 1 unit in the basement above ground, and the 2nd unit consisting of the 1st 2 floors and the finished attic. The 1st floor has the usual kitchen, dinning, room and a half bathroom. The 2nd floor has 2 bedrooms and a full bath. And the attic has a bedroom, a sitting room and a half bath. From the first day I moved in it has been hell. There's a leak in the 3rd floor bathroom that I have told her about since I moved in. The 3rd floor has no heat so my husband and I had to move in with my two kids to the 2nd floor. In March the refrigerator stopped working and I had to hound her for 2 weeks to get it replaced and that was only because I kept calling the repairman. Hell, I'm cooking on a stove with no knobs. But the last straw was when the leak finally turned into a busted sewer line in my walls. It flooded the entire house with sewer water and completely drenched my 5 month old son who was in a doorway jumper. This happened just before the 4th of July weekend. I called her for a week she never came. I called HPD I called everyone. When she did come to collect the rent I told her about the leak and she tried to blame me. When I told her about the baby she said she didn't care and where was her rent. I told her I wasn't going to give her a penny more until she fixed the plumbing. She told me to move out. I had just started a new job and I'm not eligible for health insurance until October and my son needed surgery. I had to pay for it out of pocket I couldn't afford to pay 2 months security and 1st months rent with out getting back my deposit from her so I was not leaving. I paid for the clean up myself but I couldn't pay for the repairs. Since then the house continuously floods, sewer water seeps in from the walls, the ceilings, the floors everyway. The carpets are damp and the stench is unbelievable. Suffice to say I have two HPD complaints and an HP Action against her. 2 weeks ago she started eviction proceedings and we went to housing court. We both agreed in front of the arbitrator to forego any past rent and I would get my security deposit back barring any serious damage to the home. I wanted the agreement to specifically say I would not be responsible for any water damage caused by the busted pipe. She refused to sign off on that. With the constant back and forth the arbitrator asked some questions that I was able to answer with pictures. The arbitrator and her atty got all weird when I mentioned that the leaking bathroom was the one in the attic and then the arbitrator did a check and guess what the house has no certificate of occupancy and he refused to sign off on anything, he said there where too many issues and we would have to see a judge. But no one explained anything to me. What happened? How does this affect me? I can't move my son for the next 2.5 weeks, he has a catheter, a waste bag, tubes monitors you name it and it doesn't come off until the Sept. 14th. and I can't afford to move with out my deposit. I'm going out of my mind with worry and I don't even know if I need an atty for the hearing. Please if any of you has any idea what happened or what I should do please let me know. Thanks so much.

[Anna]

If there is no CO and either the attic bath or the cellar or basement apt were added after 1929, the additions are illegal. They were also performed w/o permits from DOB, because in granting those permits, DOB would have required a CO.

If there is no CO and the law requires one, then your LL cannot collect rent. If you paid rent, you cannot get it back.

If bldg is listed as single family and there are two units, LL might not be able to use HC-- might be restricted to an ejectment action in Supreme court.

Go to DOB online. look up your bldg.
Look into all permits, jobs, COs; print everything.
Go to HPDOnline: print out all violations.; did HPD do inspection from HP Action yet?
Then take all papers: lease, complaints, court papers, DOB printouts, HPD printouts, to a T-clinic or your union rep atty, or housing specialist at QBP.

Read this: http://tenant.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4954

[Antioquia]

Thanks so much for replying. There is definitely no c o here. My husband went to the Building Dept. today and the house is being listed as assumed to be built in 1910 but no C O is listed. There was 1 Action in 1958 but it doesn't state what the action was. There was something about a new boiler but in 1998 but nothing else. No open permits or complaints. I have my receipts from HPD and the inspector came last Friday for my HP Action and noted that there were no smoke detectors or carbon monoxide detectors in the whole house. The house is being taxed as a 2 family but until I showed the arbitrator the photo of the house he and the LL's atty were both under the impression that the house was a side by side 2 fam. In reality the 1st unit is the basement and the 2nd unit is the remaining 2 floors and the converted attic.
I have a court date for the HP Action on Sept. 6 which the LL atty plans on going. Should I bring an atty as well?
I advised the arbitrator of the court date and he postponed the trial date until the 15th.
The atty already knew that the only reason I hadn't left the apartment yet was because of my son and he will have the tubes and the monitors removed on the 14th so she asked me if it were possible for me to be out by the 15th so we wouldn't have to go to court. I am assuming that this is to my LL's benefit.
I signed the stipulation that the LL's atty handed me when we agreed but since the arbitrator wouldn't sign off on it and it has to go to trial can this come back to bite me in the rear?
My last question I promise. But I noticed you said I could not get any rent back but what about my security deposit. If she can not sue me for rental arrears can I at least get my deposit back? This would make it a lot easier for me to move out sooner.

Thanks again for all your help.

[Anna]

Whatever was in the computer in DOB's office is available to the whole world 24/7 online: http://nyc.gov/buildings

Sec dep: http://tenant.net/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=15

"I have a court date for the HP Action on Sept. 6 which the LL atty plans on going. Should I bring an atty as well? " No need to,. but bring photos, complaints, DOB pages, HPD pages, etc = evidence of conditions that need repair.
Bring also printouts from every NYC site concerning whether house is illegal-two and/or whether bath in basement and/or in attic are illegal.

Also learn more about the warranty of habitability defense and the partial rent rebate you should get for months sewage leaks. In addition to articles in Reference, read the basics: http://www.tenant.net/Court/cwtfhc/index.html http://www.tenant.net/Court/Howcourt/index.html

Read and understand the illegal conversion issue BEFORE the next eviction proceeding court date. Use the TN Google-search for many examples of similar illegal apts. If you can't understand whether this case MUST be dismissed or what defenses ou have, then take all paperwork to QBP or another local office T-clinic, T-atty, etc .

[Antioquia]

Thanks so much for all your help but my LL has now seriously lost it. I have no idea what got into this woman but she just spent the past 3 hours standing in front of the driveway with a man holding an industrial sized crowbar, at least 3 feet long. They never entered the building, never knocked on the door and I even went to collect the mail and they just sneered at me. I'm home alone with 2 small children. What was that about? I will admit I got scared and I called 311 to report what I believe was harrassment and 911 said that unless they said something or did something to me it wasn't harrassment. So what am I supposed to do? What if they come back?

Thanks so mch for all your help.