Landlord wants to evict us, but has no grounds - we want to leave, but not in 3 weeks!! (2014, apartment)

[confusedrenternyc]

Okay, so here's what's up:

When my fiance and I first moved in to our new apartment in August of this year (one apartment in a 4-family home), we soon found out that we'd accidentally brought bed bugs from the old place (we didn't know about them when we moved). After doing some research and calling 311, we found out that bed bug extermination in NYC is always the landlord's responsibility, regardless of who brought in the bed bugs originally. (This was a big relief to us, as we could not afford the extermination ourselves, especially after the moving expenses we'd just incurred.) We fought with our landlords about this, but they relented and sprayed (once) for bugs.

Since that time, our landlords have been nothing but abusive and insulting to us. We've been trying to just ignore it, but they've also refused to make needed repairs for a month. They refuse to fix the oven that came with the apartment (which has never worked, though they insist we broke it). Yesterday, we told them that if they didn't repair the oven we would file a complaint with the city, but that we'd rather just deal with it between us. Their response was to tell us that "this is [our] last month in the apartment" and that we "need to find somewhere else to live" because "it's not working out."

We have a lease that entitles us to stay through August 14, 2014. We are fully paid up on all rent and fees. In fact, we paid our second month's rent 5 days early, per their request.

At this point, we've been hassled so much that we'd like to find somewhere else, but we're not sure what to do about the rent that would be due on October 15. Their message implied that they want us out by then - which would only give us three weeks to find a new place and move, not to mention the fact that we've been served no eviction papers, and there is no legal grounds for eviction anyway. Honestly, we just want to move on and get our security deposit back: there's construction that goes on all day, the walls are paper-thin, and the landlords and their mother scream at each other in Arabic at all hours of the night - as late/early as 3:30 am on multiple occasions; the construction starts at 8 am.

Our plan right now is to say, "Okay, we'll sign off on cancelling the lease if you give us our security deposit back in full." We're concerned they won't do this, given the fact that they've continually harassed us about the $300 they spent on the exterminator, as well as insisting that we're the ones that broke their (very old, very rickety) oven. We also don't necessarily want to rush into renting a new place in the next three weeks, but are wary of staying past their illegally-imposed October 15 deadline.

Our landlords have said explicitly that they "don't care what the law says, it's [their] house." There are 5 brothers that are all the landlords, and they're quite aggressive in their communication. One of them yelled at me for several minutes in my doorway, being very personally insulting, during the whole bed bug fiasco. I'm very nervous about these large, aggressive men that have stated that they don't care what the law says (and seem, through their actions, to also be quite ignorant of it). While they have no legal cause to evict us, I don't think it's too much to think they might change the locks or put our stuff on the street. We want to move on, but don't want to be rushed into renting somewhere else. We're already going to have to borrow money from family in order to move, so we really need to get the deposit back as well.

Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you,
- M

[Henna]

Maybe you should call the tenants rights hotline Free Tenants' Rights Telephone Hotline | Metropolitan Council on Housing

Other than that, I don't see the harm in approaching them the way you described. Either they will say yes or no. If they say no, that's not agreeable to them, then you stay, and the "illegally imposed October 15 deadline" ceases to exist. You should probably read up on how to document everything properly in case you need evidence of anything later on.

Just a few questions: how do you know you brought the bedbugs, since you didn't discover them until you moved in? Were they entrenched in your belongings? Also, are the bedbugs completely gone? One spray isn't usually enough.

[confusedrenternyc]

We know we brought in the bugs because, when we went back to our old apartment to get our last few boxes, we found a letter from our apartment building saying there was a bed bug infestation. (My fiance had been getting bites, but we just assumed it was from mosquitoes, as our old building was not well insulated and had lots of patches of standing water.) We went back to the new apartment, hunted around, and found 1 bug on the back of a picture frame. That and 1 dead bug that I found in a bag after the exterminator came is all we ever saw. No eggs, no carcases, no feces. No bites since the exterminator came. That was 3-4 weeks ago.

We're pretty sure the bugs are gone. We think it was a very light infestation. We got rid of the futon that we had, bought a proper bed and encased both the mattress and the box spring. We washed all our clothes, sprayed everything with rubbing alcohol, etc. No bites since then. We recently laid down some diatomaceous earth in the bedroom as well, after our upstairs neighbors told us they thought they found a bug on one of their pillows. The landlords hadn't notified them of the problem, and of course hadn't sprayed up there. Everything we've read says that you should do 2 sprays, spaced 2 weeks apart, but the landlords weren't willing to pay for more spraying unless we actually found more bugs, which we have not.

I will definitely try calling that hotline tomorrow - thank you!

[Pruzhany]

FYI:

While
the landlord must cover the expense of hiring an exterminator, it is a tenant’s
responsibility to comply with all measures determined necessary by the
exterminator. Usually this means that renters must provide complete access
of their belongings to the exterminator, allowing them to inspect clothing in
closets and dressers, mattresses and box springs, and all of the upholstered
furniture. Sometimes it is necessary for the renter to empty their
apartment of many of these items, or even discard them completely.

http://newdigs.com/blog/2010/09/theres-bugs-in-my-bed-whos-gonna-pay/

[confusedrenternyc]

Yes, we are aware of that requirement. We spent around $700 cleaning the apartment and threw out the futon that appeared to be harboring the bugs. We had hoped that, in addition to taking care of the problem, the landlords would see all this and take it as a sign of good-faith, and that no ill will was intended and that this is "just one of those things that happens." However, they continued to harass us about the $300, and said that if we "really felt bad" about the situation, we would pay for the exterminator ourselves. They still bring up the bed bugs in almost every correspondence between us.

[Pruzhany]

did he actually pay $300? Did you see the bill?

IMO, knowing that you brought the problem with you morally/ethically I would offer to split the bill with him to make peace.

[Henna]

Originally Posted by Pruzhany

did he actually pay $300? Did you see the bill?

IMO, knowing that you brought the problem with you morally/ethically I would offer to split the bill with him to make peace.

Maybe at the beginning that might have been a kind (though unnecessary) gesture, but it doesn't make sense now. The landlord, by law, is required to exterminate. The fact that the landlord has been harassing the tenant for so long about something the landlord is legally bound to pay for, is simply harassment. Nothing ethical or moral about harassment.

[confusedrenternyc]

It was actually $250. They just say $300 when they yell at us.

I see where you're coming from, but we don't have any money. We blew the last of our savings doing our part getting rid of the bugs. As I said, we're going to have to borrow money from family in order to move. The way I see it, we did everything required of our contract without complaint (spending nearly three times what they spent, not to mention a substantial amount of time and energy), while they've been incredibly abusive from the get-go.

They seem to try to get-one-over every chance they get, and there's no reason to think it wouldn't continue, even if we did attempt to make peace with them:

1) We got a notice from the power company saying that they had been about to shut off power to communal areas, but that the landlords had relented and paid them at the last minute.
2) The girls in the apartment upstairs can't get their hot water fixed (they turn it up for awhile, then turn it back down again).
3) The guys working construction upstairs have had loud fights with the landlords about getting paid.
4) When we contacted them the first time about getting the oven fixed, they said that they "can't keep paying for things [we] break" because we "break everything [we] touch," despite the fact that it was the first time we'd requested any repairs. They then proceeded to ignore all messages about the oven for a month, until we told them we'd be filing a complaint with the city, at which point they told us "this would be [our] last month" in the apartment.

We've fulfilled all of our responsibilities as tenants without complaint; they are unwilling to perform their responsibilities as landlords.

[confusedrenternyc]

Originally Posted by Henna

Maybe at the beginning that might have been a kind (though unnecessary) gesture, but it doesn't make sense now. The landlord, by law, is required to exterminate. The fact that the landlord has been harassing the tenant for so long about something the landlord is legally bound to pay for, is simply harassment. Nothing ethical or moral about harassment.

You said what I meant more concisely!

[NyWriterdude]

Originally Posted by confusedrenternyc

Our landlords have said explicitly that they "don't care what the law says, it's [their] house." There are 5 brothers that are all the landlords, and they're quite aggressive in their communication. One of them yelled at me for several minutes in my doorway, being very personally insulting, during the whole bed bug fiasco. I'm very nervous about these large, aggressive men that have stated that they don't care what the law says (and seem, through their actions, to also be quite ignorant of it). While they have no legal cause to evict us, I don't think it's too much to think they might change the locks or put our stuff on the street. We want to move on, but don't want to be rushed into renting somewhere else. We're already going to have to borrow money from family in order to move, so we really need to get the deposit back as well.

Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you,
- M

If they change the locks or put you on the street, call 911. That's an illegal lockout. You can sue in housing court as well. Basically if a matter like this is brought before the court, the judge would just ask you guys how much time do you realistically need to get a new place.

In the future, renting out space from a house that has 6 people? In and of itself that sounds shady. Just rent a real apartment next time, particularly if you have family help and a job.