Hi, I'm writing because I've been having an ongoing issue with my landlord and I'm not sure how to proceed. For some background info, I had a harassing neighbor situation escalate to physical aggression in early May, leading me to file a police report and vacate my apartment almost 2 months early (with 30+ days notice to my landlord). I vacated on June 6, and my lease is up on July 31. I had paid for the entire lease upfront due to poor credit, and I am now looking to get some of that money back from my landlord if she is able to find a tenant. I have reason to believe that she is either (a) lying to me about not having a tenant, or (b) not making an effort to actually find a tenant and just letting the apartment sit empty for the remainder of my lease.
She listed the apartment on standard apartment sites (Zillow, Trulia, etc) in late May at $200 higher than what I had been paying. On June 23, she took the listings down and I reached out a few days later to ask if she'd found a tenant, to which she replied that she had not. It's been almost 2 weeks and the listings are still down. I reached out again on Saturday to ask for an update and offer to help find a tenant, and she did not respond.
My question is: Would I have a case if I were to fight this in court and attempt to recoup some of that money? My argument would be that she is not making a "good faith" effort to find a new tenant as required by RPP § 227-e. That law also stipulates that she would need to make an effort to find a tenant at "fair market value or at the rate agreed to during the term of [my] tenancy, whichever is lower." She only listed the apartment for $200 higher than what I had been paying, never lowering the asking rent before taking the listing down completely. She has been evasive and is now just not responding to me, so I'm wondering what, if anything, I can do here.