Do developers or agents determine which units are deemed lottery?

[nevinasb]

Originally Posted by Aly_girl1

I guess every agency is different. In mines the know the unit is unlivable due to the lease. But refuses to give me another unit because they say there are no more in my AMI. So when I come home, I sit in the lobby or game room until 11:30 the squash/ gold room closes. So for ex. I’ve been sitting here for 5 hours. And I guess this will be my life for another year unless I take them to court. I can’t afford to pay this rent and another apartment.

The worst part about it, is that they simply refuse to spend the money to fix the issue, put up some 99cent door deals and said deal with it. I don’t even know the first step in taking them to court, but I don’t know what else to do. Meanwhile, my entire day will be spend sitting in a public area like a homeless person.

What you are describing is a gross violation of your warranty of habitability.

You have a few avenues to get this sorted.

1) withholding rent and asking them to fix your apartment and getting some or all of your rent abated until you are living in a habitable home. This does mean the developer will take you to court for eviction due to non payment. Your defenses will include warranty of habitability etc. consult a real estate attorney for your situation. Document everything take videos of the noises.
Pay for an app that captures the sounds in decibels for videos that you take. The app overlays the db of sound time etc so definitely evidence that will come handy in court.

2) there’s something called hp action. This is a process that forces the developers hand to fix the conditions. It requires some conditions to be met like sending a notarized letter to office asking for repairs and following it with repair request to hp action.

Definitely consult a real estate attorney so you can be best advised.

Lot of times you’ll be given a million advices where nothing is applicable to you. A seasoned attorney can make things fall in place far better than strangers on the interwebs can. But if I were in your shoes I’d be exploring both option 1 & 2 and some after speaking with attorneys

[candcnyc]

Originally Posted by nevinasb

...Definitely consult a real estate attorney so you can be best advised. ... A seasoned attorney can make things fall in place far better than strangers on the interwebs can. ...

OP, there are resources listed on the NYC Housing Court website and available through local tenants' rights organizations. The HC website has tons of information, including on starting an HP proceeding to obtain repairs.

Fwiw, NYC Housing Court is VERY pro-tenant--even more so when rent-stabilized--and eviction isn't a one-and-done process (unless you ignore court dates leading to a default judgement). For holdover and nonpayment cases when you're very low-income, you're even entitled to a free lawyer.

It is very common to see landlords and tenants settle repair and habitability disputes via nonpayment cases.

Document everything--timeline of requests, email exchanges, create a daily calendar recording times of the noise & time you spend waiting it out in the lobby, take video of the noise from your apartment & pictures of your mitigation efforts, etc.

If you haven't already, leave a note for other neighboring tenants and ask if it's overwhelmingly loud for them too. Send video to HPD so they hear the severity of the problem.

[Aly_girl1]

Originally Posted by nevinasb

What you are describing is a gross violation of your warranty of habitability.

You have a few avenues to get this sorted.

1) withholding rent and asking them to fix your apartment and getting some or all of your rent abated until you are living in a habitable home. This does mean the developer will take you to court for eviction due to non payment. Your defenses will include warranty of habitability etc. consult a real estate attorney for your situation. Document everything take videos of the noises.
Pay for an app that captures the sounds in decibels for videos that you take. The app overlays the db of sound time etc so definitely evidence that will come handy in court.

2) there’s something called hp action. This is a process that forces the developers hand to fix the conditions. It requires some conditions to be met like sending a notarized letter to office asking for repairs and following it with repair request to hp action.

Definitely consult a real estate attorney so you can be best advised.

Lot of times you’ll be given a million advices where nothing is applicable to you. A seasoned attorney can make things fall in place far better than strangers on the interwebs can. But if I were in your shoes I’d be exploring both option 1 & 2 and some after speaking with attorneys

Thank you very much! I will take your advice. Last night when I had to leave the other lounges to go back to my apartment and wait out the ball room festivities, I sent yet another email to management, stating since you’ll say you can’t move me because there are no more units in my AMI the please tel mel my options to get out of the lease, because this is unlivable conditions and you’ll aren’t doing anything about it!
This morning, the property manager sent email, cc’ing the agent in his company that handles lottery apartments and other upper management, saying: “please inform Ms…. About her options to break the lease,”

[Aly_girl1]

Originally Posted by candcnyc

OP, there are resources listed on the NYC Housing Court website and available through local tenants' rights organizations. The HC website has tons of information, including on starting an HP proceeding to obtain repairs.

Fwiw, NYC Housing Court is VERY pro-tenant--even more so when rent-stabilized--and eviction isn't a one-and-done process (unless you ignore court dates leading to a default judgement). For holdover and nonpayment cases when you're very low-income, you're even entitled to a free lawyer.

It is very common to see landlords and tenants settle repair and habitability disputes via nonpayment cases.

Document everything--timeline of requests, email exchanges, create a daily calendar recording times of the noise & time you spend waiting it out in the lobby, take video of the noise from your apartment & pictures of your mitigation efforts, etc.

If you haven't already, leave a note for other neighboring tenants and ask if it's overwhelmingly loud for them too. Send video to HPD so they hear the severity of the problem.

Thank you very much. What is so disheartening is that I’ve been paying rent for this unit since September 15th, and didn’t move in until November 30th because of the noise. I gave them the max amount of time I could, as what they did was put door seals from the 99cent store. And they truly as though this remedied the situation. I just spent so much money moving, I don’t have money to move again or inconvenience my loved ones, but I can’t live in these conditions either. I feel lost and broken. If it wasn’t for this chat, I would’ve lost my mind. They act as though I’m begging lodging, like I should be grateful to even be here. Sometimes I see other lottery winners and they’re so happy and all I do is cry myself to sleep at night.