This board has been so helpful in navigating court. Thanks to all.
Maybe this will help someone also.
After sending my LL/Managers pictures of building/apartment conditions and getting little response(again), I filed an HP action and also discovered that there were 2 separate addresses in the HPD files for the building. I discovered that 311 complaints were going to a false address after an HPD inspector showed up at the neighbors looking for me. After the HP action filing HPD sent another inspector down and he added 6 violations to the building. They also corrected the double address. In court the HPD lawyer explained that LL's don't have access to their system so this wasn't apparently intentional. Court was the only way to confirm this.
Needless to say this freaked the management out and they actually fixed things that had been neglected for decades and decades. It's now a safer place. They filed an adjournment to get this done but now I have to go back and follow it all up. There are still some outstanding issues.
I need an opinion on the financial aspect of this as I have withheld rent for the 3 months as soon as I found the multiple HPD addresses. They have just sent a shake down letter for payment but there is no way I can ethically pay them (and their trumped up fees) in full for their past dangerous negligence and unacceptable service.
Should I do a deal as soon a possible for the back rent as I've noticed that their tactic seems to be to try and destroy credit. Any experiences with this?
Or should I wait to get a non payment dispossess petition from them and file a countersuit for past Bad Conditions in the building/apartment. This might lead to a settlement deal with an abatement.
I have pictures and documents of everything from the paid checks (which are different than what the shake down collection lawyers are threatening me with), to the violations of the fire department shutting down the boiler on one occasion. They almost blew up the building by hiring an unlicensed contractor. They are scary scary unaccountable people. As far as I'm concerned they should be in jail. Great news is that they also manage 20+ other buildings. I've had people tell me to go to the DA or even the FEDs with my info.
Any opinions or perspectives are greatly appreciated.
Thanks.