My landlord has accused me of illegally subletting. What can i do? (lease, lawyer)

[mathjak107]

im not following your point....... these are judges decisons and interpretations of definitions not mine..... asking me isnt the answer.... if you really want to know you need nexis lexis and look at the case historys..... i can only tell you about the modifications since a panel of judges already commented on that issue at the seminar...i wont even attemt to identify how the word occupy was interpreted if not specifically defined in our law which its not.

[ogdred]

Hello all. I am new here but you all sound well informed so perhaps you can help me with a situation. My wife and I and my Aunt are applying to lease a large two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. My wife and I will use the apartment as a primary residence, while my Aunt will not (she owns her home). My aunt is applying also as she is helping us pay the rent while I am in Medical School. The management company is being a major pain in the butt with their requests. They saw that on my aunt's tax return she is listing her daughter as a dependent, who is a college student upstate, and they are demanding that her daughter submit documentation proving she is at college and will not be living in the apartment. They said their reasons are that they don't want more than 3 people living in the 2 bedroom apartment. According to NYC law for apartment sharing and NYC discrimination law, is this illegal for them to make the lease conditional that the child of a named tenant not live there? It appears to me it is illegal.

In any case, my aunt's daughter won't even be living with us. We will instead have an "occupant" who is another family member (NOT a subletter, they will not have any lease and we will be responsible for them, the super already OK'd this) living in the 2nd bedroom.

They've had our application for over a week and I'm concerned that they are dragging their feet hoping to solicit higher priced offers for the apartment. Do I have any recourse against them?

Thanks!

[modsquad81]

Originally Posted by ogdred

Hello all. I am new here but you all sound well informed so perhaps you can help me with a situation. My wife and I and my Aunt are applying to lease a large two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. My wife and I will use the apartment as a primary residence, while my Aunt will not (she owns her home). My aunt is applying also as she is helping us pay the rent while I am in Medical School. The management company is being a major pain in the butt with their requests. They saw that on my aunt's tax return she is listing her daughter as a dependent, who is a college student upstate, and they are demanding that her daughter submit documentation proving she is at college and will not be living in the apartment. They said their reasons are that they don't want more than 3 people living in the 2 bedroom apartment. According to NYC law for apartment sharing and NYC discrimination law, is this illegal for them to make the lease conditional that the child of a named tenant not live there? It appears to me it is illegal.

In any case, my aunt's daughter won't even be living with us. We will instead have an "occupant" who is another family member (NOT a subletter, they will not have any lease and we will be responsible for them, the super already OK'd this) living in the 2nd bedroom.

They've had our application for over a week and I'm concerned that they are dragging their feet hoping to solicit higher priced offers for the apartment. Do I have any recourse against them?

Thanks!

Submit the documentation they ask for. It wouldn't preclude her moving in at some future date. No matter what the lease says State/City regulations would render clauses unenforceable if they go against rights granted by law. This sounds like a fig leaf that management can offer to the owner showing they're being consciences knowing full well it is easily circumvented. You have no rights since you haven't signed any lease as of yet.

PS Should start a new thread. Don't normally like digging through ancient historyl

[ogdred]

Thanks for the reply. I did submit the documentation they requested. They were flexible with us with their pet policy so I was inclined to give them whatever they ask. I am concerned however that their making the rental of the apartment conditional on one of the tenants not having immediate family living with them constitutes discrimination.

The NYC housing guidelines say this:
"Landlords may not discriminate against any person who has children living with them, by refusing to rent an apartment or by insisting upon unfavorable lease terms on the basis of the person having children. However, this restriction does not apply to housing units for senior citizens which are subsidized or insured by the federal government. In addition, a lease may not require that tenants remain childless during their tenancy. Real Property Law §237."

If they refuse to rent us the apartment because they believe my aunt's daughter will live with us, wouldn't that constitute discrimination?

[loratliff]

ogdred, why wouldn't your aunt just act as a guarantor, rather than being named on the lease?

[ogdred]

That's a good question. The reason why is because NY landlords seem to require that someone who is a "Guarantor" make 80x the rent, whereas if you're a "Tenant", you're only required to make 40x the rent. My aunt makes about 60x the rent so we had her apply as a tenant. That's all OK to do, as "Tenant" is someone that, according to the law, merely has to be qualified to live at the apartment. Only one "Tenant" must make the apartment their primary residence if there are multiple tenants.

[ogdred]

Incidentally they went ahead and approved us. I mentioned to the broker the questionable legality of them making approval for the lease dependent on an immediate family member not living there, and shortly after pointing that out, the broker called back and said we got approved, so I guess it isn't a bad thing when a landlord finds out that you know the law.

[snglmom]

I want to know if I am subletting from someone and the primary has moved out , the manager gave me 2 days to move and he waited until I went to work, and removed the locks and told my son and his girlfriend to get out, I never failed on the rent to my so called landlord, can the manager of the building get in trouble for doing what he did

[brooklyn1234]

Originally Posted by snglmom

I want to know if I am subletting from someone and the primary has moved out , the manager gave me 2 days to move and he waited until I went to work, and removed the locks and told my son and his girlfriend to get out, I never failed on the rent to my so called landlord, can the manager of the building get in trouble for doing what he did

how long have you been living there? I believe if you have been there 30 days then they have to evict you, in which case changing the locks would be illegal and you could take them to court.

[jcoltrane]

Originally Posted by snglmom

I want to know if I am subletting from someone and the primary has moved out , the manager gave me 2 days to move and he waited until I went to work, and removed the locks and told my son and his girlfriend to get out, I never failed on the rent to my so called landlord, can the manager of the building get in trouble for doing what he did

Your "LL" was the leaseholder, who I presume has allowed the lease to expire w/o surrendering the premises, correct?

In trouble? For what? Taking possession of a premises which he has a legal right to do.

Who are you? The LL/Manager don't know you!

You are a SQUATTER!

The LL/Manager could call the Police and have you removed. The police should request *proof* that you actually llive there.

You illegally sublet the apartment, and now the lease tenant has screwed you and disappeared. Or, did you just think you could stay, even though the lease tenant has given up the apartment. Is that it?

Who do you pay your rent to now? Did the lease tenant pay the rent on the apartment?