Ripped off by landlord

[Nalllater]

I was suppose to move into my own place. it was going to be a 2 family house. which I was led to believe was a 3 family house. there is no such thing. there's the top floor and the 1st floor an the floor below it is a basement. now it is new york city law that the basment is not suppose to be rented out. I didn't know that. also there were problems for the get go. when I called the electric company to have the light turned on they told my that the 1st and the basment share a meter I told her "no my apartment is the 1st floor and the one above it the second andthe one above that is the 3rd. she said either way there is only 2 meters for the house and the the place had to be re wired before I could set up an account. I told the landlord and he said that he would hire an electrician to do the work. he claimed he did and was now waiting on con edison for them to inspect. so I thought fine I can still move in. my mother and I went on thurs to clean the place and we were better able to inspect the place. and the gates on the window are not secure enough. and he said that he would put in new windows. he had a month to do so. I even told him if he needed more time to fix the place I could wait as long as I knew that he would as long as I knew the apartment was mine. he said that he would fix it, so I proceeded to buy furniture and what not. when I got there he hadn't done nothin. he only painted the bathroom and the bedroom. he didn't even paint the living room or the kitchen. or the closets. and I inspected those closets and found more problems with him. So I decided that this is waaay to many problems for me to deal with and I hadn't even moved into the place. so I wanted my money back. and now he's saying he ain't giving me my money back. he may give me some of it. but not all. how you not going to give me my money back, and its illegal to rent a basement apartment and call it the first floor. its illegal to rent an apartment and have shared meters. and he had a month to fix these problems and he didn't do a thing. I do know enough to know if I move in on sunday, that I'm excepting the apartment and its preexisting condition. but anyway for right now I'm out 1600 dollars. My mother wants to go to court. I'm seriously considering it. I worked toooo d@mn hard to save up that money in the short time I've been working to just hand it over to somenone. how could I have been soooo d@mn naiive. Why didn't I see this coming.

[Nalllater]

Does any one have any advice. that I would be able to use in court. or does anyone know who I would have to contact.

[too trusting]

You can sue in small claims court. But getting the money back after you win is still a problem. You can tell the landlord you will report him to the department of buildings if he doesn't give you the money back and see if that helps. To report him go to www.nyc.gov/buildings, scroll down to the yellow on-line complaint form link and fill out the complaint. They'll check it out fairly quickly. You can also tell them you have access to the building, if you still do, and will let them in to inspect your apt.

I went through this last year in SI. You can read about my problem under HELP - Landlord wants us to leave! We just moved in! I'm still in the process of trying to collect on my judgment from the criminal landlady.

<small>[ June 02, 2003, 11:10 AM: Message edited by: too trusting ]</small>

[Nalllater]

Originally posted by too trusting:
You can sue in small claims court. But getting the money back after you win is still a problem. You can tell the landlord you will report him to the department of buildings if he doesn't give you the money back and see if that helps. To report him go to www.nyc.gov/buildings, scroll down to the yellow on-line complaint form link and fill out the complaint. They'll check it out fairly quickly. You can also tell them you have access to the building, if you still do, and will let them in to inspect your apt.

I went through this last year in SI. You can read about my problem under HELP - Landlord wants us to leave! We just moved in! I'm still in the process of trying to collect on my judgment from the criminal landlady.

Thank you so much for responding. I spent all day running around in brooklyn filing a motion in small claims court. I filed for 1600 dollars. do you know whether or not I can bring a lawyer to small claims court. If I do. since I only put 1600 can I increase it to include the lawyers fee.

[too trusting]

Originally posted by Nalllater:

Originally posted by too trusting:
[b]You can sue in small claims court. But getting the money back after you win is still a problem. You can tell the landlord you will report him to the department of buildings if he doesn't give you the money back and see if that helps. To report him go to www.nyc.gov/buildings, scroll down to the yellow on-line complaint form link and fill out the complaint. They'll check it out fairly quickly. You can also tell them you have access to the building, if you still do, and will let them in to inspect your apt.

I went through this last year in SI. You can read about my problem under HELP - Landlord wants us to leave! We just moved in! I'm still in the process of trying to collect on my judgment from the criminal landlady.

Thank you so much for responding. I spent all day running around in brooklyn filing a motion in small claims court. I filed for 1600 dollars. do you know whether or not I can bring a lawyer to small claims court. If I do. since I only put 1600 can I increase it to include the lawyers fee.[/b]

No you cannot bring a lawyer to small claims. You can get advice and ideas for how to present your case, but no lawyers are allowed. Since you can't use a lawyer in court I doubt they would let you sue for consultation fees.

Make sure you have ALL your paperwork. If ConEd sent you a letter bring it and make sure you have copies made of everything, they may want the originals. If ConEd hasn't sent you any letters call and ask for one explaining what they found. Tell them you need it for court and they'll get it out to you. Include your lease and any pics you took. If you haven't taken any, go now and take pics. Get as much as you can to show physical proof of all your alligations. Its small claims court so its not real strict but it will go better for you the more prepared you are. Bring in the cancelled check if you have it, if you don't go to the bank and get a copy, front and back of the check. The clerks at the court can be very helpful so ask questions or call and ask questions. If you're nervous, go and check out some small claims cases. You can go one night and watch what happens, they usually have small claims cases one or two nights a week. The more prepared and relaxed you are the better you will appear.

<small>[ June 02, 2003, 03:14 PM: Message edited by: too trusting ]</small>

[HardKnocks]

Good for you! Hope you get your money back and the LL gets what he deserves. Report back here, OK?

[Nalllater]

I'm going to type a letter tonight and send it to the would be landlord certified mail so he can't say I didn't tell him. tomorrow I'm going to have to sit down and think really heard of all of the dates. I do have a major problem. I never signed a lease. but he claimed that he was going to give my one, but never did. that is good advice about the getting info from con ed. also with further research I've found out that I would have been sharing the gas as well. so I'm going to have to call the gas company as well. he was crooked all the way around the bored.He took advantage of my in experience. now I know never ever to try and live in a 2 family house. I will stick to regular apartment buildings.

[mbrenner]

I think you can bring a lawyer to Small Claims Court. My neighbor got sued by our landlord there and HER insurance company provided a lawyer. He didn't make a ton of arguments before the Judge -- but he was there. In other words, I do not know fully what a lawyer's function would be. You really can go there without a lawyer.

[too trusting]

Originally posted by iris:
I think you can bring a lawyer to Small Claims Court. My neighbor got sued by our landlord there and HER insurance company provided a lawyer. He didn't make a ton of arguments before the Judge -- but he was there. In other words, I do not know fully what a lawyer's function would be. You really can go there without a lawyer.

You can but he shouldn't 'act' like a lawyer. He can give advice but the judge can say they'd rather hear from the person involved NOT the lawyer. The lawyer can be there to give advice, although you can get that before you go to court. Keep in mind lawyers charge by the hour and you could be waiting a few hours before you get to state your case. Small claims court goes until all cases have been heard and can go as late as midnight! In other words it could cost you more to pay the lawyer than what your suing for. Even if you win, its up to you to collect and the lawyer will want his money now, not later.

<small>[ June 03, 2003, 09:19 AM: Message edited by: too trusting ]</small>

[queenswoman]

I hope the NYC government finds out that he is renting out an illegal basement. I had a landlord in the past who did that, a tenant reported him, the inspector came and he had to pay something like $25,000 to fix up the house and convert the illegal basement into legal basement before he could rent out the basement again (plus he had to keep the apartment vacant for about a year until he fixed it up so he lost all that rental income.