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Deducting money from rent

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Deducting money from rent

Postby chystyna » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:41 pm

I am living in what I now know is an illegal apartment. There are two other apartments in the house I am in. I am in the basement, other apartment is on first floor, and other apartment is on the second. The apartment is on Long Island, in Nassua County, the city is Baldwin. The apartment is part of a single family house. There is no written lease, it is month to month.

The apartment is a wreck, and was when I moved in. The landlord told me that the light sockets in the ceiling that had blue tape on them could not be used because of a fire issue. The apartment has NO HEAT whatsoever, but it does have an AC unit built in the wall. This is to give you the general idea of what kind of apartment I am in.

On Monday I woke up to my living room being flooded with sewage. I immediatly called my landlord (at 8am). She first asked if I had any friends that could fix it, I don't and I told her so. She wanted me to go online and looks on craigslist to find a plumber or a "handyman" and get the numbers for her. She stated she was on her way to drop her kids off at school and when she was done dropping her kids off at school she would call me and get the numbers I had collected. I went online, looked, and I found nothing. I tried calling her at her house and cell and she did not answer. Frustrated, I cleaned the sewage out of the living room and bathroom, and looked for a plumber again. I called Roto Rotor at 10am (an actual company) to come give an estimate. I did not hear anything from her till 11am and I told her that I had called the company and she stated that it would be too much money but since someone is comming down she will wait to see the estimate. The man came and the sump(sp?) pump was bad and it would be $1100 to replace. I called her with the estimate, and she spoke to the repair man and declined the work. She told me that she had one done in her house and it was half the price. She said she would look online to try and find a handyman and asked if I could stay at a friends house untill tommorow. I told her I could find a friends house to stay at. She called me later that evening and told me she had a lineup of people to come and give her estimates. She wanted me to be there so they could do the estimates. So I told her I would take the day off from work and let people do estimates (meanwhile, I am a young woman meeting people off of craigslist that I have never spoken to alone in a nonpublic place and that scares the hell out of me but I wont go into that..). The next day (which happens to be today) three people came. All with estimates higher than the company I called. They all said that the apartment was build around the apartment and that the part of the kitchen cabinates, kitchen sink and part of the wall would have to be removed in order to access the pump. She declined the work from all three. I spoke with her and she stated that she has one more person comming today at around 4:30, and if the estimate is good he could do it tommorow. She also said that she has one more person comming tommorow to give her an estimate, she said she could let him in to do the estimate but she couldn't stay, she would let him in and he would leave when he was done, and if he needed to repair it he could just come back (door left unlocked). I told her how completly uncomfortable I was leaving some stranger off the internet in my apartment with free range to steal all of my things, she appoligized but said she could only come down and unlock the door. I told her I would take tommorow off from work because I can't have a stranger in my house for hours alone. I don't have much, but it's all I have. She then said that if the second estimate wasn't low enough she would just have roto router do it. I can't stay in my apartment, I have no running water, bo toliet.

Well onto my questions... I have several:
1. Would it be ok to deduct money from my rent to pay for me not having a place to stay for these two days, not working, and so forth. I am not talking anything extravagant, just deducting $300 to compensate not having to work or a place to stay.
2. I have a reciept stating that I gave the landlord a security deposit, signed by the landlord. If I call 311 to have the city go over the violations, I will be forced to leave, how do I get my deposit back? I really do not think she will be returning it after all that happens.



If any more information is needed let me know. Thank you.
chystyna
 
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Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:28 pm

Postby TenantNet » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:45 pm

Any way you can shorten all that? It's been a tough day (and hot) and I don't have the energy to read all that. Please cut about 75% :)
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Postby chystyna » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:09 pm

Yes, I'm sorry =)

Apartment has been unlivable for 2 days, tommorow will be the third. Can I deduct money from my rent for time I was not able to stay here?


The apartment is illegal, I know that if I report it as an illegal apartment my landlord will try to not give my security deposit back. How do I go about getting it back when that issue arises...or better yet, what should I say to my landlord to avoid having to take additional steps to getting it back?
chystyna
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:28 pm

Postby TenantNet » Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:04 pm

Unlivable? How? That's a question of fact. There's no law that says you can deduct rent, but it's usually done to encourage LL to fix things. In some cases that might be constructive eviction ... but it depends on the facts. Of course, if you deduct, the LL takes you to court. You interpose defense and counterclaims and a judge makes the decision on an abatement. (wish it were as simple as that). In certain instances you should not only consider the time lost from living in the unit, but the expenses (hotel, food, etc) where you are staying.

Look on the forum (and the reference section) about illegal units. This could mean that LL can't maintain a Housing Court proceeding if illegal.
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