Lease says no kids and landlord's legal fees get paid

[ryan]

I live in a non-rent-stabilized apartment in Brooklyn. I've lived here three years with a lease and have had not problems with my landlord. But the lease, which just came up for renewal, has all sorts of objectionable language like: I pay his legal fees if he wins a legal dispute but I don't pay his if I win; that no one but me can live in the apartment. On these two points (I have a child who live with me 20% of the time, and the landlord knows that and is verbally OK with it) is it worth fighting or are they just plainly illegal and I shouldn't worry? Thanks.

[concord]

I have no position regarding the legality of the additional terms added by the landlord. This posting is an opinion.

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If the landlord expects you to agree to “pay his legal fees if he wins a legal dispute” then you may wish to ask him to add to the lease that, “the landlord must pay your legal fees if you [the tenant] win a legal dispute”.

Secondly, I couldn’t see a judge deeming that your son is “living with you” if he is present 20% of the time. That time frame, ten weeks per year, seems more like a visit to me rather than a residency. Especially if, your son has an address at which he stays for the other 42 weeks of the year. So it would seem unlikely, in my opinion that, your eviction would be ordered based upon having a second resident in your apartment which would constitute a violation of the terms of your lease.

I’ve had girlfriends who have stayed in my apartment for an easily collective ten weeks per year but they don’t “reside “ here. If my landlord were to imply that they do reside here I would tell him to go f*% himself.

In respect to the ‘no kids’ clause, I read in a forum discussion on this website that if you have [produce] a child while in occupancy of an apartment that, the landlord can not evict you. However, this may only apply to rent-stabilized apartments. If so, that would make for some pretty shitty discriminatory legislation against those tenants who are non-regulated but there are flaws like that in the law.