My landlord just filed a nonpayment petition against me. I have 2 questions:
1. In the petition, he states my unit is not rent stabilized. It is and I have a copy of an Article 78 decision to support this fact. Can this petition be dismissed based on the fact that my apartment is misrepresented as a dwelling that is not rent stabilized?
2. Only months ago, this landlord just finished a holdover against me which he lost, trying to claim I didn't occupy my (rent stabilized) unit as my primary residence. He says in order to start that case, he sent me back one of my money orders with a letter. He couldn't prove that, because when he provided the letter he sent, it did NOT have an address on it. He never sent me back my money orders. I checked with the cash checking place and during that entire 2022 holdover case, he didn't cash any of them. Don't I have grounds to sue for harassment for these tactics? I dont know how much my countersuit should be for in this respect. There were other ways he was harassing me as well, such as not providing any light in the public hallways for 2 years and broken entry locks that would lock us in the building, among other things. Only, every time we called 311, they could not get in and just closed the complaints.
He is suing for rent from September 2022 and some other months after that..