TenantNet Forum

Where tenants can seek help and help others



Major Pigeon Prob. LL will do nothing

Issues unrelated to specific categories below

Moderator: TenantNet

Major Pigeon Prob. LL will do nothing

Postby Schmoo64 » Fri Aug 16, 2002 9:47 am

My husband, I and my 10-month old boy live in a rent stabalized apartment. We have pigeons nesting, a dead, rotting pigeon, and feces in our back windows. We can not open any of the windows in the rear of the apartment. I sent the LL a certified letter 6/17/02 stating that we wanted the area cleaned. He did nothing so we filed a formal complaint with DHCR. DHCR sent back our complaint stating that this matter should be handled by the Department of Health, not DHCR (even though they said differently before we filed the complaint). Anyway, I have contacted the Department of Health and hope that they will send someone here. Can we/should we be withholding our rent at this point? My feeling is that we should but we are also trying to find a place to move to (can't take it any more) and I am concerned that if we withhold rent we will have problems with our credit report (which is sqeaky clean). Thanks for your help.

Lori
Schmoo64
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2002 1:01 am

Re: Major Pigeon Prob. LL will do nothing

Postby my2boysjj » Tue Aug 20, 2002 2:42 pm

You can call the department of health let them know what is going on. Your landlord tecnically has a total of 45 days to respond. If you are considering witholding rent you should open up a hp account at the courts. what this does is that you pay rent to the court and the courts will withold the rent for you. That way your credit is not ruined. You can also ask for an abatement which that reduces your rent. You can tell the judge that when you first moved in the apartment was in one condition and now the apartment is in another. So bascially the apartment has lost it's value.
my2boysjj
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Aug 13, 2002 1:01 am

Re: Major Pigeon Prob. LL will do nothing

Postby Schmoo64 » Thu Aug 29, 2002 10:36 am

Thanks for the reply. The Department of Health finally came out and looked at the situation. The gentleman agreed that it was a hazardous situation and wrote a summons/violation to the managing agent. That was a couple of weeks ago and still nothing. Meanwhile we are going to be closing on a house at the end of September. We are going to move out with no notice and only call them when we are gone. I have two years worth of certified letters, the Dept of Health violation, pictures and a statement from an Air Quality organization that will testify that this is indeed a hazardous situation. If they want to take us to housing court....good luck! I think they will be happy to see us go anyway. Maybe they can find someone to rent this place that doesn't mind living with a rotting pigeon carcass in the window!

Lori
Schmoo64
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2002 1:01 am


Return to NYC General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 32 guests