landlord sending threatening eviction lettersletters

[AgtSpenderfbi]

In september I received a letter from the leasing office stating that I had 3 days to renew my lease or legal action would be taked against me. The interesting part is that this letter was sent to me in september and I signed a year lease in March. I called....and they hemmed and hawed and I was told to disregard the notice. However when discussing this with the leasing office they told me that they were going to hike my rent from $1009 to $1350 after the lease is up. I asked if they could do that and I was told yes because it ws a "market" Apartment. Is that true??
#2
This past saturday I received a letter from the leasing office with the header reading "30 DAY EVICTION NOTICE" For leaving garbage in the stairwell. Although i do take full responsibility for the garbage (Empty boxes from a new roomate moving in) I am on the top floor and there is no one above me and the next door neightbor is a friend and would nag me about it before complaining to the landlord. I marched down to the leasing office demanding an explanation to the letter which seemed more of a scare tactic. I was told by the woman, who didnt readily admit that she wrote the letter, that she put "30 NOTICE OF EVICTION" to scare me into coming to her office to discuss the garbage matter. I have a difficult time understanding that. If they wanted to talk about the garbage issue why didnt thet just say that?? My question to you is can I actually be evicted in 30 days or is this falling under harrassment? It seems I am being scared into leaving my apartment so they can hike the rent. Where can I go to obtain my rights in the city of NY Queens borough as a tenant as i think a war ia on the brew? Thanks

[Phil Cohen]

The rent is pretty low. Could this be rent-stabilized? Stabilized or not, they can't do this. If you were litigious, you could cause a lot of havoc for these people. They can't force you to renew your lease now if it began in September.
If they are serious about eviction you need a lawyer. These people seem like real shits.

[AgtSpenderfbi]

Yeah they were pretty cool landlords until the market took a dive. The apartment isnt rent controlled or stablized. Its just an area that has really boomed through the past 3 years. They dont seem too serious about the eviction..in fact the woman told me that I wasnt being evicted...it was just a scare tactic to get me to come to her office. I have never ran from these people. Im pretty responsible for my own actions and go into their office whenever there is a need or reason to.

[Phil Cohen]

Well, they can hike your rent as much as they want in that case. But if the lease is up in March they are being premature.

[geoffnet7]

You could be rent stabilized if the building was built before 1974 and there are 6 or more units in it. If you are or aren't, you can't be evicted for garbage piling up, or rather it would be highly unlikely. The procedure would go something like this: the landlord would have to serve you a notice that if you didn't pick up the garbage within a certain period of time then they would start eviction proceedings against you. If they did, you could deny that the garbage was yours or say that you were given no warning that they were going to start eviction proceedings. In any case public hallways are technically the landlord's responsibility. Any accumulation of garbage for a period of time in public areas is considered the landlord's "bad", not the tenants. If they can prove to a judge that you were willingly putting garbage in the halss and refusing to pick it up, then they could have a good case to present to a judge. Just remember, only a judge can decide whether or not you are to be evicted, not your landlord.