On my floor there is only suppose to be one apartment (saw the COO and when the inspector came and took pictures of my apartment he had the COO with him and confirmed it).
The tenant in the other apartment moved out in January. She told me she stopped paying rent since July 2008 and he was taking her to court to evict her plus get back rent but she needed to prove that the apartment was illegal so she wouldn't have to pay the back rent. Inspector came around November 2008 and took pictures of her apartment. The day he was suppose to come and take pictures of mine while she was still living there, I wasn't home.
My LL is now is telling me that he wants to seal up the other apartment door on my floor and break down the wall in my apartment so that the inspector from the DOB can come and take his pictures, see that it's legal and then when it's done, he will put the wall back up. Outrageous, right? Well I told him so and told him THAT was illegal and he cannot do that.
Now he is trying to negotiate with me. Currently I pay $1150 (month-to-month tenant, non-regulated 1 bedroom apartment) and that includes the gas and electric bill. He told me that he would break down the wall, remove the kitchen in the other apartment (making it a 2 bedroom, 2 full bath apartment with 2 balconies) and I could have the entire apartment (the way it should be as stated in the COO) for $1350 NOT including gas and electric. So my rent would increase by $200 and then I'd have to pay for my own ConEd bill.
My question is: can he legally raise the rent on me since it was an illegal conversion which he is now trying to make legal?