Hi,
I have a month-to-month lease in an apartment I've lived in for 5 years in Brooklyn, NY.
Since I've moved in there have been two cars in dead storage in the front yard in terrible condition - heaps of garbage inside, sometimes vagrants sleep between them, etc. 2 years ago rats began moving in, burrowing into the ground beneath the cars.
I started calling 311 earlier this spring. Eventually the Dept of Health came out here and when they saw the conditions, started baiting immediately and billing the landlord. Unfortunately because the cars still haven't been moved, there is only so much they can do - and so the infestation continues, to a serious extent. the cars themselves also pose serious problems, attracting various kinds of crime and vandalism. I also read it's a zoning violation to have cars on residential property in dead storage, with no license plates.
Meanwhile the landlord told me a few weeks ago that he wants to raise the rent in September - by $300, or almost 15% of the current rent. I started requesting his mailing address - which I and the other tenants have never had - so I can start communicating all the issues. However he has refused to provide it and just ignores my requests! I'm certain that he's legally required to give it to us, but he's stubborn. Probably because he suspects I want to take him to housing court and get either a rent reduction or a court mandate that he makes these repairs. And, he's very aware of all the issues, we have had many conversations on the phone, in person and over text, just not by certified mail or any other traceable method. He's a wily one.
I've checked city records and the ones that are available list his address as MY address, which he doesn't live at.
I also discovered that he hasn't registered the rental property with HPD.
How do I proceed without his address? I can't start an HP action if I don't know where to send the papers. I read somewhere he is legally required to provide an address within 21 days of a tenant requesting it - but I can't find where I read that now. Should I just start withholding rent and wait for him to sue for nonpayment, then countersue for breach of the warranty? My other roommates are willing to participate in these courses of action.
My numerous 311 calls have yielded almost no response from inspectors, only the dept of health has come, and HPD hasn't responded or sent an inspector at all since I began filing complaints in May.