Anyone with experience in Ossining?

[BronxRenter]

I am a tenant in Ossining NY facing a retlitory eviction by my landlord Home Properties Inc.

Does anyone on this board have any info as to the climate in the Ossining Village court?

Any great notorious tenant attorneys in Westchester?

[Downtown]

Details?
If you have a signed lease then LL can only evict for legal reasons...non payment, creating a hazard, pets, etc.
Not knowing your situation, don't know if you have a valid case. When shopping for an atty. ask 1. Is case winable or just draging out inevitable. 2. Full cost of pursuing.
Paying for a consultation and getting advice and possible help is probably worth it.

[BronxRenter]

Basically, My lease expires on Sept 30, LL sent offer to renew in writing. Mt wife called and agreed and they agreed to send us the new lease. My wife then sent a flyer criticizing the LL's actions regarding our parking lot, she hand delivered this to our neighbors in the complex.

Then LL sent a registered letter to us saying that they elected not to renew our lease, and we had to be out by Sept 25. They then sent another letter correcting the date to Sept 30.

I have offered to stay as month to month paying higher rent until the closing on my condo on or about April 14, 2005 approx 7 months. They refused and through the lawyers it became apparent that the "girls" in the office were livid about my wife's flyer. Ironically their attorney has tried to let us stay as month to month but LL is adamant about getting us out.

This eviction is clearly retalitory in nature, they have admitted it, through their lawyer. Having offered us a renewal, and then renegging tells me that before they offered the renewal they did not have any plans for this particular apartment. Since the burden of proof will be on them, it's a moot point.

My only reason for staying is that my condo is not built yet and I won't close until April.

I intend to overstay the end of the lease and force them to evict me. In the meantime I believe that they have inadvertantly accepted my rent for October, making me a m2m tenant. Thus pushing their legal eviction back another month.

My question was intended to get the climate of the Ossining village court. Is it tenant friendly? Typically on eviction cases, how long does it take to get someone out, in a real world basis? I know that typically judges give at least 30 days stays, even in cases of non payment of rent. What would a judge do in a case where I'm more than willing to pay?

<small>[ September 27, 2004, 11:38 PM: Message edited by: Phil on the Job ]</small>

[tenantTomasz]

I would strongly recommend going to an experienced tenant attorney for at least two resons:
1) He/she may be able to explain how long it takes to kick the tenant out in your jusrisdiction, provided your schmocklord has a valid case, and,
2) With attorney's help and assistance you will get more in the process of negotiation and the LL may be less aggressive and more willing to settle it he/she/they now, that the other side is also reperesented by a legal cancel.
Last but not least there is always a possibility that the harassing LL or his/her/their attorney made some legal mistakes and the whole case against you will be thrown out completely. The problem is it may take an experienced attorney to figure that out. In the past I was taken to the court by the LL whose attorney was basically a moron. In addition, as my lawyer pointed out the whole case was "riddled with monkey business". It gave me a lot of power to fight back. However, without legal advise i would have never figured out how full of legal mistakes and thus how week the LL's case had been.
Good luck.

[BronxRenter]

Thanks for all the advice, I have an attorney working on the case. She does not specialize in tenant law but she has handled many eviction cases, probably all of them from the LL side. She is an excellent attorney and negotiator.

I am also a professional tenant. I have rented many apartments, and this is not my first time at the Rodeo. I'm not about to let anyone, nevermind some twenty something employee of this Slumlord trample my rights. I have feeling that this is her first job out of college, and she doesn't know the rules yet. I fully intend to educate her, and the slumlord she works for.

They are a large corporation, and the law favors them, but I have a lot of things on my side.

I have a feeling that they will try to negotiate after they learn that I'm not going to just leave like they want, but I am fully looking forward to a good fight with them.

I'll let you know how I make out.

[Downtown]

Look your lease is up Sept 30...even if LL took Oct rent that's an extra 30 as you said. Bottom line, even with the best of atty's, a couple of adjournments...looking at 6 months tops.
House/Condos etc. don't always close on time. Unless you get LL to agree to April would strongly suggest you save your money/time/amger and find a sublet.
A judge can't force LL to keep you beyond lease termination or renew (but you know that). If you have read board, why tenants who have renewal questions in open-market are cautioned to sign and then fight (if they want to stay).

[BronxRenter]

Well it's the pricipal of the thing. I believe that if I pay for an appeal, I could hold things up longer, but the bottom line is, I'm in contract with a condo and I'm leaving anyway. It would be cheaper for them to avoid the fight and acquiesce, especially sice I'm offering additional rent. If they want to fight they got it.

[BronxRenter]

UPDATE:

I was served with a notice of petition. I retained a lawyer and we prepared an answer to the petition.
The highlights:

Court lacks juristiction: (I was served nail and mail, no due diligence exercised)

Petitioner lacks standing: Petition states a different corporation than my lease, and my rent checks)

Retalitory eviction per 223b of real property law, I did in fact make good faith complaints to the building department, and my wifes flyer is clearly purposed to organize and inform other tenants.

Lease in effect: we may have an argument that since they sent us a written offer to renew, and my wife on two occasions verbally agreed, as per notice, that a lease is still in effect. Their representative verbally agreed to send the lease over for signatures both times.

At court, judge imediately called both counsels to approach and asked them to settle the case. He adjourned the case for all purposes for two weeks.

[Downtown]

I really hope for your sake that LL agrees to a new lease or at least a stip for the time you want.
It is pretty much standard (unless really agregious) for a postponment to settle where you live. How lucky do you feel. It has been my understanding that until both parties sign lease not valid and LL could withdraw offer. Automatic renewal is not a guarantee. Name of petitioner is probably the owner of building. Server will lie and claim tried twice.
Good luck, would be interested in outcome.

[Downtown]

Was wondering how (if any) progress was going. has there been any talks of a settlement...have the attys even talked.

[BronxRenter]

I was supposed to be in court on Nov 4.

LL Attorney offered a settlement which was a stip for 7 months of occupancy at 12% increase of rent.

My wife and I turned it down, we need the protection of a lease. I also know these slimelords, if they win an eviction, even stayed for 7 months, it will be on our credit record, blacklist and who knows where else.

Case has been put over until Nov 18, we'll see then if they really want a trial or not.

[NeGeMo]

I am not a lawyer, but I can say a Stip is extremely strong and cannot be broken unless the court decides and/or your atty's agree on new terms.

I am sure your atty can work on a fair agreement.

[HardKnocks]

You're already on the blacklist. You were on it as soon as the case was filed. And win or lose, you'll stay on it.

[BronxRenter]

Update,

Appeared in court on Nov 18

Got a favorable motion schedule from the judge. Which puts me back in court Jan 13 2005.

We'll make our motions and lets the case take it's course, and of course there's always the possibility of a settlement.

I had to explain the blacklist concept to my own lawyer. He had never heard of it and he's a LL himself.

Is blacklist statewide, I'm not in NYC? I also thought you had to lose to be on it?

[Anna]

Tenant blacklisting is nation-wide. Over 25 companies provide some 'tenant screening' service: google that. It is particularly dangerous for NYC tenant because we have a separate Housing Court with its own computer system, distinct from the rest of our civil courts. How successful these companies are in identifying L&T cases from others in areas like yours where you only have one civil court (county court) for all lower civil cases is unknown.

Perhaps you or your atty could get your report from a few of the largest tenant screening services and report back. Or your atty could contact Jamie Fishman and ask if his FOIL request shows they bought records from your court...

Under a Freedom of Information Act request, Mr. Fishman received a copy of the New York State court system's Revenue Generation Report, which shows that for the year ended on March 31, 2002, approximately 25 companies paid a total of $1,089,424 for the purchase of housing court records. "It's absolutely not just closed cases," he said. "A lot of the reports simply
say, `Case Filed,' and not the disposition, the actual outcome."

At the same time, Mr. Fishman said, his nformation request showed that the court system "sells the records for those cases where it was the tenant who sued the landlord, let's say in order to get repairs, because those are also brought in housing court. I think that's pretty scary."

http://tenant.net/pipermail/nytenants-online/2003-December/000257.html

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