I am a new renter to NYC, I have two roommates, and this is our first time renting. We found apartment with help of a broker. Apartment is a 3 bedroom month to month rental in a 3 family home, landlord is in the building. The contract we signed stated 3 occupants, no pets. This is all that is on the rental agreement. We took possession of keys 10/01. Between work obligations, travel etc. all 3 of us did not move in exactly on 10/01.
Once we all moved in, by 3rd week of October, things got a little out of hand with landlord. As the days progressed "rules" now were being added by the day.
Myself and 2 roommates start work at different times, from 7;30-9 am, so leave at different times. We return at 5:30- 7pm in the evening. She has stated we all have to leave at the same time in the morning. One of roommates has a SO, who on occasion has stayed over night, maybe one night a week, two at most. One roommate had 2 out of town friends stay overnight one night to travel to a wedding they were attending. Floors are not carpeted, we do not have wild parties, no playing loud music, in bed by 11.
Landlord has video camera at front door, recording our comings and goings. She has now said we are not allowed to have ANY guests, not friends, S/O nobody. Just the 3 of us. We can not be walking around our apartment with shoes on, too noisy. All noise must be over by 10 pm, no walking around after 10 pm.
When she began with the new rules, we contacted the broker to inquire if they were aware of these stipulations, because we would not have agreed to rent if we were aware of this. Broker said no it was not part of agreement, they were not aware of this as stipulations for the rental.
We asked the broker to find us another place, we could not stand the daily harassment the landlord gave us as we entered the home or exited the home, she would come out and harass us in the hallway. We sat down with landlord, to try to come to a reasonable solution, but in the end we realized she is bat crazy.Broker agreed, we gave landlord a move out date of Dec 1st, on or before Nov 1st. Landlord is claiming we never told her anything about leaving which is an outright lie.
Landlord now claims she knows for a fact the broker knew the guest/S/O policy, and said don't you remember when broker asked in front of me if any of us had girlfriend/boyfriends. He did ask us, but did not say why he was asking us. This broker is/seems like a con man, so was he meeting his obligation of asking us, but not telling us why he asked, in the presence of the landlord?
Now after repeated requests to speak to the landlord to inform her our move out date is this weekend, she is claiming she is not giving us our month security back. Landlord has turned off heat since the beginning of this past week outside temps are 30 at night.
We do not know where to turn, we are out the broker fee of $4000 plus $3000 security deposit, plus all the other expenses of a new apartment, which the above mentioned broker did not help us obtain.
IS there any avenue we can explore to get our deposit back, or go after the broker for deceptive rental if he knew what the landlord rules were before we signed. If it was not in writing, how can we remedy this at the least cost possible.
I am afraid once we hand back the keys she will never answer any phone calls or answer the door when we come looking for the deposit. Since she has a live video feed rolling in her living room of any and all activity going on in and outside the building.
Suggestions greatly appreciated.