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Sponsor Tenant in West Harrison Co-op Facing Death Threats

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Sponsor Tenant in West Harrison Co-op Facing Death Threats

Postby MonitoringTheZoo » Fri Dec 18, 2020 12:22 am

I’m being regularly harassed by shareholders in a West Harrison NY Co-op. Park Knoll. They are trying to drive me out of my apartment with pounding on walls and ceilings, screaming profanity at me in the common hallway and outside the building and now one has graduated to making death threats. Screaming about how she wants to kill me. I have all of the videos here ->
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC5BJPmGPNaNCh_Rm55SjK9w

There are two of them in the videos in the same address (where I live). But there are two more next door at the next address. One of which is a man who stands on a ladder to stare into my window. He’s pictured in the avatar for the YouTube channel. These are dangerous people and they’re being encouraged to do this by their board and even the Sponsor who wants to rent my apartment to a higher paying tenant.
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Re: Sponsor Tenant in West Harrison Co-op Facing Death Threa

Postby TenantNet » Fri Dec 18, 2020 5:36 am

You don't indicate if you are RS or not. If they wish to rent to a higher-paying tenant, then if not RS, all they have to do is wait until the lease is over.

The problem with any video is that you can't see what happened before or after the video itself. There is no context. I watched one video of 2:15 in length, and it was just a closed door. Nothing happened. There was a voice in the background, but unintelligible.

The photo of the man on the ladder, it's so tiny, you can't get any info out about that. Even if larger, was he doing work?

It seems you are documenting things, but from what I can see, it doesn't prove anything.

I know what harassment is. My LL does it quite often. But I also know there's not much you can do about it. Even if the documentation was stronger, the government often will not lift a finger. And here. it seems to come from some angry neighbors, not a LL.

How do you know the Board or Sponsor are telling the neighbors to do something? Where's the proof?

I'm not suggesting the situation is tense, but you have to be able to tell a story that seems to hold together.

I would continue to document things, not only with video, but also keep a journal. Make written complaints to the Board. Yes, they might ignore it, but then you have it on record.
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Re: Sponsor Tenant in West Harrison Co-op Facing Death Threa

Postby MonitoringTheZoo » Fri Dec 18, 2020 12:01 pm

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Re: Sponsor Tenant in West Harrison Co-op Facing Death Threa

Postby TenantNet » Fri Dec 18, 2020 1:20 pm

Thanks, but that's not really the point. If you really feel threatened, you should call the police and go to court to get a restraining order. The new video is still just a door with no indication where the voices are coming from.
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Re: Sponsor Tenant in West Harrison Co-op Facing Death Threa

Postby MonitoringTheZoo » Fri Dec 18, 2020 2:28 pm

This is where the voice is coming from - inside the apartment - behind the door ->
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apl_0ReH5SI
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Re: Sponsor Tenant in West Harrison Co-op Facing Death Threa

Postby MonitoringTheZoo » Fri Dec 18, 2020 2:41 pm

MonitoringTheZoo wrote:This is where the voice is coming from - inside the apartment - behind the door ->
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apl_0ReH5SI


And I have snapshots of text messages from the landlord threatening to raise my rent “a lot” next month because these harassing neighbors simply don’t like me and want all Sponsor tenants to leave on their watch. The landlord is even telling me in txt messages to remove my Christmas lights because these people don’t like us.

Is this legal during a pandemic in Westchester County or NYS to force a tenant out by raising the rent a lot simply because the neighbors don’t like me? Aren’t there any safeguards in place in NYS during a pandemic to stop a landlord from forcing out a paying tenant simply because he and the neighbors don’t like me?
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Re: Sponsor Tenant in West Harrison Co-op Facing Death Threa

Postby TenantNet » Fri Dec 18, 2020 3:07 pm

What she said there, that's not a death threat.

You didn't answer the question, are you rent stab?

Any eviction must go through a court process. Don't know about Westchester, but courts are backed-up, a lot (or closed). If you get legal papers, talk to a tenant attorney as soon as possible.

However, you might hold back on characterizing the videos. They can paint you as being paranoid.
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Re: Sponsor Tenant in West Harrison Co-op Facing Death Threa

Postby MonitoringTheZoo » Wed Dec 23, 2020 9:30 pm

I am not rent controlled or rent stabilized or rent regulated. I haven’t had a lease in years. I’ve been paying minimal rent increases annually for years. I’ve never had an issue with the landlord until now. Hundreds of thousands of rich people all left NYC and came up here to rent and buy everything. So now the landlord wants to capitalize. But it’s my understanding that he cannot just raise the rent on a month to month arrangement after the lease has expired. I know he’ll try anyway but I won’t pay it. And it will cost him a lot of money and time to get me out. As it should. It’s wrong to do this to someone on a fixed income.
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Re: Sponsor Tenant in West Harrison Co-op Facing Death Threa

Postby TenantNet » Thu Dec 24, 2020 3:23 am

The demand from COVID will eventually level off.

If you were a rent stab tenant when the coop or condo conversion occurred, then you should still be (even without a lease).

If you moved in after that, and they did not offer a renewal lease, i.e., you just continued to live there, then you would likely be a month-to-month tenant. That still requires the LL to go through all service and court requirements, but they don't have to wait until a lease expires to do so.

The LL can still raise the rent, they just have to give you proper advance notice (in writing of course). For changes to rent laws (not just rent stab), go to viewtopic.php?f=24&t=13981
and download Part 1. (see page 8 of document - page 39 at the bottom - on changes to RPL):

Landlords must notify tenants if the lease will not be renewed or if rent will be increased by 5% or more.

Length of notice depends on how long you have lived there. If you have lived there more than 2 years, they must give you 90 days' notice.

But the LL issues does not explain why other tenants are giving you a hard time.

You say you're on a fixed income, so are you a senior? There might be additional rights for seniors (especially with RS seniors). Not saying there are, but worth looking into if there's a chance the unit might lawfully be under RS. Many are certain they are not RS, but really looked at it. Plus a claim of possible RS status if made on good-faith, could delay any effort to get you out.

I'm just mentioning possibilities and don't know all the issues you have, but any of these things are worth investigating.
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Re: Sponsor Tenant in West Harrison Co-op Facing Death Threa

Postby MonitoringTheZoo » Thu Dec 24, 2020 1:04 pm

Thank you for that information. The most important part of the writing seems to me is that the landlord cannot raise the rent without 90 days written notice? Am I reading this correctly? I am a month to month tenant and have been so in the same apartment for the last five years. In Westchester County. I’ve been living in the apartment for twelve years total. The landlord stopped offering lease renewals five years ago and forced me to accept month to month tenancy presumably so he could get me out when he felt like it. I didn’t object at the time because I hated and still do hate the apartment and felt it was best if I could leave it at anytime. But I haven’t left it because I’m afraid of moving again. I would not be able to remain in the area. And would have to travel hundreds of miles away to an affordable place.

So is that correct? He cannot just send me an invoice in a week for January with a new amount that’s A LOT higher? Without written notice 90 days? Or because I’m month to month he can do that at any time? 30 days notice?

And the neighbors hate me because they’re shareholders in the co-op engaging in co-op conversion harassment trying to get rid of a Sponsor tenant. I also successfully sued the owners corporation over a personal injury on the property and they are pissed.
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Re: Sponsor Tenant in West Harrison Co-op Facing Death Threa

Postby TenantNet » Thu Dec 24, 2020 1:36 pm

Were you a tenant in the unit when the building went coop/condo? If you are RS, then his failure to offer leases does not matter; the rent cannot go up in such case and he can't get you out without cause. That is if you are RS. And just because a LL says you are not RS does not make it so. The LL does not decide that.

You should get a rent history from DHCR.

Download the PDF from the link above as to notice. Look for the part that says outside of NYC. It's on page 8 of the file (but says page 39 at the bottom of the page). My reading is that notice for long-term tenants require 90 day notices. But check to make sure it applies to month-to-month tenants as well and those outside of NYC. I think it does, but doublecheck.

You say you have a fixed income (which I presume to be low income). So I would check with Legal Services or Legal Aid and verify all I have indicated above.

Just FYI, a month to month is essentially a 30-day renewal of the prior lease. So the 30 day lease for January must reflect the same terms and conditions as the expiring lease (which is December). They can change things, but must give advance notice. It used to be 30 days, but now is longer for long-term tenants. It does not say if the notice has to be served by a process server in person or if regular mail would suffice.

I would ignore the neighbors and make sure you know your rights as to notice. Check with a lawyer and get a rent history. If there is evidence that the unit was RS, and if you were in the unit when the conversion occurred, you might have a case with DHCR to get back RS status.

Seriously, it's worth looking into.
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Re: Sponsor Tenant in West Harrison Co-op Facing Death Threa

Postby MonitoringTheZoo » Sat Jan 09, 2021 3:22 pm

Tenant dot net moderator,

Would you please delete this thread entirely? I came here thinking I had some evidence of wrongdoing and harassment but clearly I don’t. There’s no reason to keep this writing here. As you’ve pointed out the problems are coming from some bad neighbors and not the landlord. And I’m not a rent control person and I don’t even have a year lease to protect me. Just a month to month existence. I came to this board once before with videos like these back six years ago and it really didn’t reflect badly on anyone except me. Would you please remove all of it?
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Re: Sponsor Tenant in West Harrison Co-op Facing Death Threa

Postby TenantNet » Sat Jan 09, 2021 3:50 pm

We generally do not delete threads, or even allow users to delete all their posts. See item No. 3 in the Forum Guidelines at http://tenant.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=4809

This forum is for teaching in addition to helping tenants. People research here. Moreover, we spend a good amount of time responding to tenants; to gut a thread would make our responses seem meaningless.

What we can do is lock the topic so others will not flame or troll any legitimate posters.
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