Brooklyn Holdover Petition

[brklynn99]

Our building is old enough that a CO isnt required, it goes to original use which means our apartment is commercial. We have been living here for three years, initially our landlord assisted to make the place residential(supplying stove, tub, toilet, sinks etc.)

There are a total of three units in the building the upper ones are residential. We thought we might have a case for a horizontal MD due to shared ownership, multiple utilities and yard, but from reading cases this looks unlikely with out a common entry way, hall or lobby.

And in the neighboring building, which has first floor commercial also and 4 residential units above, the people living in the commercial space(the mirror image of ours) have a live/work lease- i assume that is illegal too and commercial means no residents at all.

Our situation is that we were doing a work exchange for rent, and now we have found out that we were doing illegal work for illegal rent so we have no rights as to getting compensation for this work, we think we are owed until April.

We've been told that basically all we are doing is bargaining time, that the LL's knowledge and assitence in converting the space doesn't really mean anything. This may be because we don't have a lease.

We are considering calling our landlord in the hopes of comming to an agreement without going to court. I am wondering how long a case can take without a lawyer, since this would be our reasoning with the LL that we'd agree to leave in the time it would take in court anyway and he could save money and time.

So our court date is on Dec. 4th, we'll get an adjournment, then we go to reconcile, then we go to trial and the judge will give us a month to leave? Then if we cannot find a place we can extend it by the 'order to show cause' - just making sure this is right. How long are the gaps between these parts? How many time can we adjourn?

I understand there is variation and a lot will depend on the judge, but what is an average time range here?

Any advice is appreciated thanks so much.

[TenantNet]

Go to People's Firehouse at 113 Berry St. in Williamsburg. Speak with Kurt Hill.