Mold in the basement apartment beneath us no problem?!!

[Ray Vincent]

I'm renting the main floor of a private house in Brooklyn on a month-to-month basis. The basement apartment, which we do not rent, has been vacant for over a year and has developed serious mold and ceiling damage due to porous cementwork.

We let the landlord know about this back in February and, of course, no action. (He's losing the house to foreclosure anyway and refuses to invest further in the upkeep of the building.)

We called HPD and a city inspector verified the problem but told us that since we are not the tenants of the basement apartment, we have no grounds to insist that the landlord address the problem.

I always thought that mold spreads and is a health problem for the whole building, regardless of whether it is currently in my apartment. I'm probably going to have to deal with this in court soon, since I haven't paid the landlord rent for a while over this issue.

Can anyone advise me whether the City is correct? I can't believe the landlord has no responsibility in this.

[ronin]

Well mold is tricky. Just because there's some mold doesn't make it toxic mold that kills on contact. You even admit it's not in your apartment. Do a mold search on Tenant Net and read up on it. I think you don't have a leg to stand on.

Your LL is being foreclosed against and you won't pay your rent? You demand repairs to an empty apartment but refuse to give him the means to provide them fully aware that your LL is in financial trouble?

That's pretty low.

IMHO

[Cranky Tenant]

Month to month and not paying rent? Offhand I'd say you have the right to a 30 day notice. Use it wisely.