Eviction in Two Family House

[palmel4]

I live in Bronx, New York
Today's date - Sept. 11th
My husband and I rented the apartment on the second floor of a two family house.
When we first moved in, the landlord said she lived on the first floor, rented an apartment in the basement to a friend, and the upstairs apartment to us.
Now, she is trying to evict us. We have a month to month rental agreement. The rental agrement did not state that we could not use more than one air conditioner, however, after we moved in, she told us since the house is old we could not use more than one air conditioner. She says we have the air conditioner on too much. She doesn't want us to have it on if we are not home, or not use when it is not that hot out. We felt since we were paying rent, plus an additional $50 a month for electricity, she has no right to tell us when we can use our air conditioner or for how long. She served us with a 30 day notice, then served us with court papers after the appropriate time. We stopped paying rent after getting the eviction notice. We thought we would have six months to move out. When we went to court, the arbitrator told us the landlord would not sue us for back rent if we agreed to start paying rent again, and move out on Nov. 15. She said basically we have no rights since the house is a two family house, and it is not rent stabilized. The landlord is now saying that her and her friend share the first floor and basement apartment together. The arbitrator convinced us to settle. We signed a stipulation stating that we would pay rent until Nov. 15th, at which point we would have to move out or the landlord can serve us with a warrant for eviction. We want to move out, but can't save up money to move if we have to pay rent at the same time. My friends told us that since we have a child we wouldn't have to move, however, that didn't seem to have a bearing when we were in court. We thought we would have six months to move after we went to court, so we didn't save the rent money that we didn't pay her before. Come Nov. 15th I believe we are still going to be there. What can we do when we are served with the warrant?

[Brooklyn Babe]

Unfortunately, you signed a stipulation, which is a court binding agreement. If you needed 6 mths, then you should have had that stipulated in your agreement. The Crt atty. was correct in regards to your rights in a 2 family house -very little tenant protection. At this point, you can file an "Order to Show Cause" in which you will have to go in front of a judge and explain why you can't/won't meet your obligation. You might want to do it in November, and tell the judge you need more time to move, but can not do so if you are paying rent at the same time. Keep in mind, your LL already waived the back rent...There is no gaurantee that the judge and/or LL will give you a break, so you'll need to get spme $ together.
Best of Luck...

[palmel4]

Thanks for the response.
Can we argue that the house is a multiple dwelling since there are techinically three families living there, ours, landlord, and basement apartment tenant; or is it worth our time?

[Cranky Tenant]

Originally posted by Melanie:
We want to move out, but can't save up money to move if we have to pay rent at the same time.

It's not likely that the court is going to allow you to continue living there without paying rent.

[consigliere]

You should not have signed the stipulation.
 
Tenants in unregulated apartments have few rights, even in a building with three, four, or five units.
 
However, you may be living in a de facto multiple dwelling, and the landlord may be required to get a certificate of occupancy and a multiple dwelling registration.
 
If you had raised these defenses, you could have delayed the proceeding and possibly caused it to be moved to state Supreme Court, and you might also have avoided paying rent until the landlord obtained a certificate of occupancy and a multiple dwelling registration.