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Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

Maribelle7777 Posted:

Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

For over a year we've had a leak in the ceiling. A painter (plaster/painter) was here ONCE to fix it and said he's fixed the same area on the ceiling numerous times. It's right below the door to the roof and I guess the idiots that did the roof never sealed it right along the doorway. Our super (the lazy SOB) knows it, has done NOTHING to help it. Actaully said to me 'oh so the landlord hasnt' called the painter,huh?' so that means the landlord knows too.

ETA: and why 'the painter' because it needs more than a lousy paint job! It needs to be re-plastered or something in that area.

And now a leak under the sink.

I want to stop paying rent until it's fixed but I think I can't just stop paying. I need to put the money in escrow? This is what I heard. And that I need a lawyer to do this? That seems a bit pricey to do this.

I just don't want to get tossed out for not paying the rent but I want my freaking ceiling fixed!!!!!!! DH says he's going to threaten to call a building inspector but I'm afraid if he does that he'll come in and inspect all the apartments and I don't want to get anyone living here in trouble. I just can't wait to move out of here. Ya think 'pre-war' buildings are charming? Think again

Here's the pic of the ceiling and the damage the leak has caused. It's in the kitchen.



myasmom Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

An option we have used is paying for the repair ourselves and duducting the cost from the rent. But that was for something not as major as this. Our friend in the city did this and the landlord took him to court..he won but had to find a new place to live...too much tension.

Boop2704 Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

OMG, that is terrible. Maybe you could try calling a lawyer or asking one on here for advice. That is so wrong. I could have taken a pic a few years ago of our bedroom ceiling and it looked almost exactly like yours. The ceiling in our place actually collapsed and DH and his friend fixed it and deducted the money from the rent. But your ceiling looks really really bad. Maybe calling the building inspector wouldn't be such a bad idea. If they check everyones apartments, it will only be beneficial to them in the end and it will be an annonymous call so they won't know its you!!

Maribelle7777 Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

Boop,

What ticks me off is that I've already sent him a letter with pictures last year and NOTHING was done. I think what I'll do is have DH call the super and the landlord and say he's going to get it fixed himself and just deduct it from the rent. That way, we'll know it's fixed and it's done right.

If a lawyer on here could contact me about my legal options that would be great.

I just don't need to be tossed out on our butts!

When I told the super and landlord that DH was moving in, they never raised the rent so I guess we're supposed to just 'deal' with the leak. Sure - until it collapses. Then what?

prncssrachel Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

Try to find out if NY has a tenants bill of rights. I know Massachusetts does, and we had to use it to get out of a lease. We rented an apartment in a bad neighborhood, unbeknownst to us, and there was a drive-by shooting in our complex, well, if we left, we would have had to pay the rest of the lease, which was like 8,000 bucks! So we looked up online and found that the tenants' bill of rights stated that you are entitled to a safe and habitable environment at all times and if for any reason your safety is in jeopardy or your living conditions uninhabitable, you may terminate your lease without penalization. So we quoted that when they tried to give us a hard time about leaving and they had no choice but to let the lease go.

Boop2704 Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

Stupid Slumlords!! DH and I can't wait to get out of our place either. Our landlord doesn't fix a thing here either.
If I were you, I would call them and do like you said, tell them your fixing it and deducting it from the rent. If they say no to that, threaten them that you are contacting a lawyer and not paying rent until the problem is fixed. Trust me they won't throw you out on your butt. They'll have to take you to court to evict you properly and that could take months and months!! And if they try entering your apartment without an eveiction, to toss your stuff, they'll be in BIG trouble!!
Maribelle7777 Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

If it wasn't for the fact that we pay less than $1000 a month, we'd move out.

Half the time I think we should anyway. I know he doesn't care if you break the lease.

He doesn't care about anything about this building other than trying to sell it. And I don't think he can do that either. He 'fixed' the roof to try to sell it and that was 3 yrs ago.

The super has another job in the city, he doesn't get home until 5pm or later and only once a month does he wash the floors and stairs. Ick.

Thankfully our neighbors are very cool and friendly, otherwise we'd have left by now.

Oh yeah and don't get me started on the whisteling radiator that wakes us up at 4am daily in the winter.

Rachel - there is a Tenants bill of rights, I'm almost positive. I'm a law librarian - I should know how to find all this crap - but I never have time at work to look. But I'm sick of how it looks so tomorrow I'm going into work early and look for information.

Boop2704 Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

Posted by Maribelle7777

If it wasn't for the fact that we pay less than $1000 a month, we'd move out.





That is the only reason we are staying in our crappy place too, it is under $1000, so we can actually still save a bit of money on the side!!
WeddingsRock Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

There are laws about fair housing in NYC. I am not sure where you are located. I know a tenants attorney and can ask him how to go about this. It is VERY important that you document everything. Even if you have to send the mail Certified Receipt. Also, when you take your pictures make sure that the photo has a date on it. You can even just hold up a copy of the newspaper to establish date. Once I know where you live, I can give you the phone number for the 'housing complaint line' and you can register a complaint with them. They will then issue a fine to your landlord. It sucks that people have to go through this, but after living in NYC, I have been through it all!

Maribelle7777 Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

WEll Clive just rang the super who said (what he normally says) 'I told Lenny last week, he hasn't gotten back to me'. So....I looked up Lenny's number and Clive just got off the phone with him. He said he's having a problem trying to get a roofer to come in on a Monday since the super is off on Mondays from his other job. The landlord also said that he knows about the problem - he was up on the roof yesterday (which is correct since I thought I heard someone up there yesterday morning) and that he wants to get it fixed but he needs a roofer to come in to stop the leak first. Once he can fix the leak he'll have a plasterer come in to my apartment and take out the crappy part of the ceiling and sheetrock it and fix it.

I just wish they'd INFORM us of what was going on so we don't think that nothing is being done. The super is the one that is not doing his job - he should have called us to say the landlord knows and is working on getting someone.

I guess I'll pay the rent tomorrow since he seems to be making a good faith effort to get it fixed.



Maribelle7777 Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

Posted by WeddingsRock

There are laws about fair housing in NYC. I am not sure where you are located. I know a tenants attorney and can ask him how to go about this. It is VERY important that you document everything. Even if you have to send the mail Certified Receipt. Also, when you take your pictures make sure that the photo has a date on it. You can even just hold up a copy of the newspaper to establish date. Once I know where you live, I can give you the phone number for the 'housing complaint line' and you can register a complaint with them. They will then issue a fine to your landlord. It sucks that people have to go through this, but after living in NYC, I have been through it all!


I just found the housing complaint line online.
However DH just called the landlord and seems that he is trying to get someone to come and fix the leak but he needs a guy to come on a Monday since the super is home on that day. He works downtown Tues-Sat so Monday is the only day they can have a roofer come to fix the leak. And I can understand that logic - no use in having a plasterer come and fix my ceiling if the roof is still leaking.

So we'll see what happens - DH will have to be on this guy's butt now finding out what's going on.

If nothing progresses then I will have to document everything. I do have pictures but no date on them - I'll retake them with a datestamp on them.

Thanks!
allaboutthecake Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

If you don't want to pay the rent at least threaten not to pay it and see if he finally starts to move, sometimes they are just so busy and it is usually the squeaky wheel that they do things for. I would keep calling until they finally sent someone over.

Moehick Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

You can put your rent in an escrow account until the landlord fixes the problem. So it is not like you are not paying but he just has to wait to get it till he does what needs to be done. Some friends of mine did this last year with their landlord.

prncssrachel Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

I would still document everything NOW because if you have a problem in the future, you want to be able to prove past problems. I always documented EVERYTHING in my apartments. And trust me, there were many, many times I was glad I did. The last apartment we had, they tried to tell us that we owed them an entire year's rent because when our lease was up, we never told them to NOT renew it. So they automatically renewed it and told us we terminated our lease early by a year when we moved out. Luckily, I had paid the last three months rent IN FULL and wrote on the memo of the check 'final rent payments Oct, Nov, Dec 2003' because that is what got us out of 14K of rent. they are TOTAL bastards in Massachusetts. They find all ways possible to scam you.

Maribelle7777 Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

Posted by Moehick

You can put your rent in an escrow account until the landlord fixes the problem. So it is not like you are not paying but he just has to wait to get it till he does what needs to be done. Some friends of mine did this last year with their landlord.


Yes I thought I could do that but I recalled that (the last time I had a problem w/ the landlord) I needed an attorney to place the $ into escrow. Not sure.

I will wait another week before I pay him. And then see where to go from there. Thanks Mo
Maribelle7777 Posted:

Re: Question about withholding rent to landlord because work needs to be done in apartment

Posted by 121502

I would still document everything NOW because if you have a problem in the future, you want to be able to prove past problems. I always documented EVERYTHING in my apartments. And trust me, there were many, many times I was glad I did. The last apartment we had, they tried to tell us that we owed them an entire year's rent because when our lease was up, we never told them to NOT renew it. So they automatically renewed it and told us we terminated our lease early by a year when we moved out. Luckily, I had paid the last three months rent IN FULL and wrote on the memo of the check 'final rent payments Oct, Nov, Dec 2003' because that is what got us out of 14K of rent. they are TOTAL bastards in Massachusetts. They find all ways possible to scam you.


Oh yeah I know. I can get my cancelled checks anytime off the web or at the bank. Unfortunately I don't have a full leg to stand on because I forgot to pay the rent for Sept. I did pay it but only 12 days ago I could have *sworn* I paid it but I looked through my checkbook and I have carbon copies of all the checks and I didn't write one out. So if push came to shove he can always say I am late with my bills.

But I have kept the other letter I sent to him (should have sent it certified/receipt - never thought of it) and I just wrote down when DH called so even though it was a phone call it is something on paper.

Thanks. Hopefully they'll get their act together about this. I think it's really the super that is being a jerk - the landlord is hardly ever here. I've been here 3 years and never even met him! Everything is through the super. He's just a lazy SOB - I even saw him earlier today on the street and he can't even say hello. He's just a jerk.

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