My daughter's lease on a NYS (outside NYC) apartment says that we must provide the landlord with post dated checks for each month of tenancy unless expressly waived in writing upon signing of lease. Lease was signed back in April, and we did not provide post dated checks at the time (no waiver was provided), and the landlord did not ask for them.
We have had ongoing problems with the apartment, including a long delay in the landlord fixing a dangerous porch condition. The relationship with the landlord remains difficult. And now the landlord is asking for post dated checks. I am not inclined to provide them, as our experience leaves me concerned that I will be obligated to spend money to make repairs the landlord wont perform, and don't want to have post dated checks in his hands. I want to pay monthly. We are entirely up to date on rent.
As I understand it, an eviction process can be undertaken only for a "substantial" violation of the lease. My uneducated guess is that failure to provide post dated checks, while remaining in compliance with rent payments, would hardly rise to the level of "substantial" in terms of a lease violation. So...can I just ignore the emails asking for those checks, and just continue to pay the rent as due (less any required repairs the landlord fails to perform)? Thanks.