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To the OP, did you bother doing a background check of this tenant before you let him/her move into your illegal basement? Also, you knew your basement was illegal and you still decided to rent it out so that makes the owness is on you. You should have done things the right way and maybe you wouldn't be in this mess.
I hope you get the person out but you need to accept responsibility for your negligence.
He/she is just looking for advice. Not to hear any crap from you. Counterproductive
He/she is just looking for advice. Not to hear any crap from you. Counterproductive
Put a sock in it man. I gave the person advice. Don't be irresponsible and use good judgement and you will not have any problems in the future. The OP put themselves in this mess and when you are asking for suggestions/advice on a public forum you will get all sorts of answers. If you want better advice then speak to a lawyer.
Put a sock in it man. I gave the person advice. Don't be irresponsible and use good judgement and you will not have any problems in the future. The OP put themselves in this mess and when you are asking for suggestions/advice on a public forum you will get all sorts of answers. If you want better advice then speak to a lawyer.
Are you sure it was a holdover case or an ejectment case? Because you cannot have any type of Housing Court proceedings to get back arrears or possession on an illegal apartment. The Court will not award any type of judgment to you on something that is illegal to have, does that make sense?
I'm sure it was a holdover...before we said anything, the judge said "This is a holdover case, which means the landlord seeks to retake possession of the property". It wasn't worded exactly like that but that was the gist of it. I also openly told the court it was illegal, there was no point hiding it at that point because the tenant would have said it if I didn't. The judge gave her 30 days to move. That's why I was so relieved and shocked when I actually won.
Quote:
Originally Posted by deeken
To the OP, did you bother doing a background check of this tenant before you let him/her move into your illegal basement? Also, you knew your basement was illegal and you still decided to rent it out so that makes the owness is on you. You should have done things the right way and maybe you wouldn't be in this mess.
I hope you get the person out but you need to accept responsibility for your negligence.
No background check, not even a google search. I had an ad in the paper and many people came to see the place, but I wanted to wait and get a feel for someone before I said yes. When she came, she started crying during the interview and said she came from a shelter. She asked for the place as soon as possible and said she felt unsafe at the shelter, she desperately wanted out. I believed her and she moved in the same day. To be honest though how fast she came in didn't make a difference because stupidly, it never occurred to me to do background checks. She gave a reference number that she said was her mother, but I never called it. I went off how much I liked the person. I felt like I had good judgement when it came to sensing whether a person was good or bad, but I guess I was wrong.
After I started getting issues I googled her out of curiosity and saw her public facebook, where she had statuses where she bragged about using people for bail and laughed about how they thought she cared about them. If I had done a quick 5 minute search I would've never let her in. I'll be honest at the time, though I knew it was illegal, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. When I first came to this country I lived in a room in a basement with 2 other tenants. ( we all had separate rooms) So when I came on hard times financially, it was one of the first things I thought about. When I bought the house there was a kitchen and a bathroom downstairs. I never rented before because I didn't need to, but I came on really hard times. I figured once I was honest with people about what they were getting and that it was illegal, it was ok. Most people seemed not to care or already figured.
Renting it was a terrible choice and one that I'll never repeat, trust me. There's too much risk and drama. Honestly after this I wouldn't even rent a legal apartment much less an illegal one.
You could also pay her to move out, May be money well spent and less painless to all parties. Would you pay her "X" months worth of rent for "getaway money"?
Maybe it was a barb :/ it didn't sound like one at the time. She intends to sue for all the rent she paid, when she said that the judge said she would never get that money back even though I'm pretty sure she might have a case? The basement looks like a regular apartment, the windows are just small. Other than that it looks just as good as the section that my family lives on. I've definitely learned my lesson! I needed the money badly but it isn't worth walking on eggshells in my own home and the damage to my property that this woman caused.
Initials are R.B
She plans to sue me for all her rent, so I'm sure she would try and sue for anything she could. I really should get a lawyer. :/
If I was sure it wouldn't be an illegal eviction I definitely would. But if it's in any way illegal she will not only sue but try to have me arrested. She tried several times to have me arrested for stupid allegations.
I can't believe it's not the same person, this sounds JUST LIKE a psycho I had to deal with. Just out of a shelter, tried to have me arrested, knew how to game the system--the works. Ours was a slightly different situation--we were going to let her couch-surf for two weeks while she looked for an apartment. We realized that she didn't seem to be looking at ALL and was getting a little too comfortable in our living room so we nicely gave her two weeks notice and she readily agreed. The first two weeks, plus the notice took her just over a month, which she was well aware (once you've been in an apartment for 30 days you have significantly expanded tenant rights in NYC which we did not know). When her day came she did a complete personality turnaround. Screamed at us, refused to move, threatened us. It was pretty awful.
My (former) landlord is also a lawyer and eviscerated her in court. If you want his information I can give it to you. He is terrific at getting rid of problem tenants.
Edited to add: And we were doing her a FAVOR! She'd sent out an email looking for a couch so she could apartment-hunt and one of my friends forwarded it to all her friends, *highly* recommending her. When Crazy flipped out, I called the friend saying WTF, this person is nuts!!! The whole saga was unbelievable.
I can't believe it's not the same person, this sounds JUST LIKE a psycho I had to deal with. Just out of a shelter, tried to have me arrested, knew how to game the system--the works. Ours was a slightly different situation--we were going to let her couch-surf for two weeks while she looked for an apartment. We realized that she didn't seem to be looking at ALL and was getting a little too comfortable in our living room so we nicely gave her two weeks notice and she readily agreed. The first two weeks, plus the notice took her just over a month, which she was well aware (once you've been in an apartment for 30 days you have significantly expanded tenant rights in NYC which we did not know). When her day came she did a complete personality turnaround. Screamed at us, refused to move, threatened us. It was pretty awful.
My (former) landlord is also a lawyer and eviscerated her in court. If you want his information I can give it to you. He is terrific at getting rid of problem tenants.
Edited to add: And we were doing her a FAVOR! She'd sent out an email looking for a couch so she could apartment-hunt and one of my friends forwarded it to all her friends, *highly* recommending her. When Crazy flipped out, I called the friend saying WTF, this person is nuts!!! The whole saga was unbelievable.
Which brings up another point? If this isn't someone you know well, why in heavens name would you do something so stupid? NYC has a huge social services/welfare complex, and poor people know it very well. I think sometimes people help people not because it makes sense (if you're dirt poor how the hell are you doing to have your life in order to get an apartment in two weeks) but because they're trying to feel good or claim that they are doing good deeds. Only people like this woman knew how to play do gooderism.
Btw, if the person has mail or some sort of evidence that they are staying in your place, they could claim they've been there for 30 days, when they have not and it would be your word against theirs, backed up by whatever mail. Meaning you're stuck with them until you have a court order for them to leave.
Which brings up another point? If this isn't someone you know well, why in heavens name would you do something so stupid? NYC has a huge social services/welfare complex, and poor people know it very well. I think sometimes people help people not because it makes sense (if you're dirt poor how the hell are you doing to have your life in order to get an apartment in two weeks) but because they're trying to feel good or claim that they are doing good deeds. Only people like this woman knew how to play do gooderism.
Btw, if the person has mail or some sort of evidence that they are staying in your place, they could claim they've been there for 30 days, when they have not and it would be your word against theirs, backed up by whatever mail. Meaning you're stuck with them until you have a court order for them to leave.
1) Because a good friend recommended her (very strong rec--boy, was she sorry!), 2) because my roommate was very poor at the time and could use some extra money, and 3) actors do this all the time. I've done it before, once for a good friend, once for a stranger who, again, was recced by a good friend. Never had a problem until Crazy came along--never again!
BTW you make it sound as though there's something wrong with trying to help out people. Kind of weird! People *should* help each other out--you should use common sense obviously but there's nothing wrong with being a decent person and extending a hand. Your use of weasel words like "do gooderism" is creepy.
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