Help, Really Horrible Situation in New York City

[BJ]

To start with, I plan to move out as soon as possible, but that will either be end of May April.

For the past 1.5 years.
I have been renting a room in the illegally converted basement of an apartment building. Their are 10 rooms total,we share 3 bathrooms. For most of that time, it has been a clean, relatively safe situation. Many of the rooms were empty, and tended to be rented to young professionals, decent college students etc.

About 9 months ago, all of that began to change.
The manager began renting spaces to less desirable people (drunks and 1 one drug addict). In that time, critical repairs have been completly neglected (broken showers, locks, filth, etc)

To put the cherry on the top of my year, a couple of months ago, there was a problem in the apartment above me and I got flooded resulting in $1500 in damages.

I was unable to contact the landlord by phone the next week (he does not provide us with an emergency number). Finally, his assistant informed me that he was out of the country. So the next week (about Feb 21st), I wrote him a letter, I outlined my damages due to flooding and listed repairs that needed to be made immeadiately if he expected to receive rent for an
illegal dwelling.
I stated that he would not receive rent from me until we spoke and resolved the problems.

He did not contact me for nearly a month and then claimed he never received the letter ( I know he did, this is a common tactic of his)
Finally we had a very ugly conversation. He initially claimed that the rent I am paying is so low that I am not entitled to repairs, and if I have damages due to flooding, that was my tough luck. finally, he agreed to make repairs and we arranged to have the super come in and inspect my damaged posessions.

The super initially blew off our appointment to meet. When he finally showed up a few days later, he refused to look at the damaged stuff and handed me a note offering $400 dollars for the damages. The super told me that if I refused it, my lock would be changed and my stuff would be packed up and thrown out on the sidewalk.

In addition, he stated that if I dealt with the problem through dept. of buildings etc, that "he would do what was necessary to protect the situation" Which from his body language and tone I can assume is a threat to life and limb.

Help! I have only lived in NYC for 2 years and do not know that many people here where I could stay.

A little info on me: I am clean, quiet, and
I always pay my rent on time. Except for withholding March, I owe nothing.

I would be way the heck out of there months ago, except that I was unemployed for several months last fall - and I work as a consultant/temp so it is very difficult to get a lease. I may have locked down a permanent job soon, but it will take another month for all of that to go through.
I do not have any back up money at this time due to the unemployment but am saving as quickly as possible now that I have a job.

But what the heck do I do in the meantime?

I am less concerned about the loss of money and property due to the flooding than the tacit threats that have been made against me and my other non-damaged stuff. There have been many complaints about other illegal construction going on and the general lack of repair, I am afraid if someone else calls the department of buidlings, I could be in danger from this thug.

I have been doing a little research and it is unclear from the infor onthe building at nyc.gov that this landlord actually is the owner of the building. he may be manageing it for a relative or something like that. There are several addresses for tax bills near where I live, but nothing lists the PO box we send rent to. Also, he claims to have an office, but everytime I call there,I am put on hold while the secretary transferrs me to his cell phone.
I think all of this is a fairly thin-veiled attempt to disguise his identity, why?- who knows.

The Super is an arrogant, ambitious but ignorant 22 year old kid who struts around with two pitbulls on a 6 foot boat\truck chain(delightful).

HOw do I get out!

[Lilly]

I would say gather your proof of rent payments indicating how long you've lived there as well as your lease if you have one and ask to speak to the desk sargent at your local police precinct.
Explain to him/her that you have been threatened by both the LL and the super and add that not only has the super has menaced you with his 2 pit bulls he has threatened you with illegal lockout.
File a complaint and write down the complaint number.

Look at the front page here at Tenant.net, scroll down the page and look towards the bottom for "Illegal Eviction and Police Procedure" Print it and keep it.

The next time the super says anything threatening call the police. Heck, call the police if he even looks at you funny. And by all means do contact the Dept of buildings. They even have an online complaint form and it gets immediate results. Here is the link:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/complaint.html

And check on the Dept of Buildings main page to see the work permits issued for you building. I'll bet all or most of the basement apartments are illegal, which means amongst other things that the LL is barred from collecting ANY rent from the apartments that are illegal until he obtains a Certificate of Occupancy.

Try Graigslist to find another place to live.