I am renting a room in LL's house in the Bronx. I found the place on craigslist four weeks ago. LL lives on the first floor. On the second floor there are three of us renting rooms where we share the kitchen, living room, and bathroom. No one has signed a lease, it is all month-to-month.
Before agreeing to take the room I specifically asked LL about what was shared with whom. I was informed that downstairs where LL lived had its own kitchen, bathroom, etc. and that LL did not use the upstairs. None of this is in writing. The only thing I have in writing is a hand-written and signed receipt of first and last month's rent paid for "month-to-month rental"
To my surprise, when I showed up to move in LL was thoroughly using the kitchen and living room for the entire day. There was a baby there that LL was taking care of. I didn't say anything.
I spoke to one of my roommates the next day who told me that had never happened before, so I chalked it up to the fact that LL needed to be upstairs getting the room ready for my arrival while babysitting.
Well, the same thing has happened three more times now. LL basically "takes over" the upstairs common areas for an entire day (huge mess in the kitchen, baby sleeping on a blow-up mattress on the floor in front of the TV... LL also had two guests over one time). It would be bad enough if it was one of my roommates doing this, but LL shouldn't be up there at all in my mind. Yesterday the two other tenants and I politely asked LL if we could speak about LL's use of the upstairs space and LL laughed maniacally (via text message) and said among other things: "FYI. THIS IS MY HOME. i own it. If you do not like it...you are veryyyyy welcome to move out. Hilarious!!!!!"
My question is do us upstairs tenants have exclusive rights to the kitchen/living room space? Are we "boarders" and basically have no exclusive rights outside of our bedrooms?
Maybe LL is within LL's rights, but no way should LL have lied to me.
Any advice is appreciated. And thanks for reading!