Good afternoon,
My LL served me with a Nonpayment petition. I owe partial payment for the past few months totaling about $2000 . I have never been comfortable with this landlord because he purchased the building like 2 years ago and was using the address but not residing there, actually stating he lives in my apartment...I did not give him authorization/permission to do so. He has confirmed this verbally and he receives mail to my building addressed to may apartment. In doing research for our case I have confirmed there is no active apartment registration with HPD and no Certificate of Occupancy on file at all. It appears he started to register in 2012 but never completed the process. Is he entitled to the rent as it appears this would make this an "illegal apartment" as per what I saw on the NYC Court website? Also can I countersue for rent monies already paid? This si my first time ging through this and want to make sure I am doing the right thing.