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subtenant won't leave after notice of termination

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subtenant won't leave after notice of termination

Postby angry-tenant » Thu Aug 14, 2014 4:16 am

I sent notice to vacate in April; subtenant remained in apartment with the intention to renew lease after my lease ended. LL said that was okay; subtenant submitted papers. Then a week or so after end of lease, I received a 30-Day Notice of Termination, with me and subtenant as respondents. I do not live in apartment. Subtenant really likes apartment: sent June check. It was accepted by LL. LL told me my job was to tell the subtenant to complete papers or vacate by Notice of Termination date. So I did. I kept texting subtenant for updates. By deadline, she had not submitted all her papers. But she also did not vacate. On the week of deadline, I offered her a mover; I offered her storage, etc., but she did not respond. Finally, she said she was away on business and would return 2 weeks after the deadline. She would vacate then. In the meantime, the summary proceedings against us will soon begin (so says LL). If this goes to court, am I liable for anything here? It is a "monthly hiring" issue, and the LL wants "surrender of premises," etc. But I do not even live there! It's the subtenant who won't vacate! Am I liable? I am trying to get LL not to include me in summary proceedings.
Last edited by angry-tenant on Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:13 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: subtenant won't leave after notice of termination

Postby TenantNet » Thu Aug 14, 2014 9:03 am

Just to clarify, you agreed to vacate the unit completely once your lease expired and the subtenant was negotiating with the LL to take over the unit as a new tenant, not as a subtenant, correct? So this is not a situation where the period of subtenancy ends and you want your apartment back, correct?

Are you rent regulated or not?

Had you removed all your possessions and furniture? Did you stop any utilities? What do you mean by "monthly hiring?"
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Re: subtenant won't leave after notice of termination

Postby angry-tenant » Thu Aug 14, 2014 9:33 am

Yes, subtenant was negotiating to be a new tenant. Yes, all my stuff is completely gone. Only the subtenant's stuff is in apartment. Yes, I am completely done with the apartment. (I do not live in NYC anymore). No, it is not rent-regulated. Yes, my name is off all utilities (the subtenant took on all of those). The LL's notice used the term "monthly hiring": I think it means month-to-month tenancy? After lease was done, subtenant sent in rent check, which was accepted; the subtenant was thus in apartment under monthly hiring? But I never agreed to it. And no one told me that that was happening (I only heard of it in the notice of termination).
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Re: Any advice on appearing at court to discontinue case?

Postby angry-tenant » Thu Oct 02, 2014 6:51 pm

I have gained a lot of advice from reading many cases here on Tenant.net, so thanks for that. I have also read the Hosing section: so thanks for all the information. I just want a bit of advice about going to court. I received a Notice of Petition (holdover) with a hearing date of Sept 3, 2014. It was sent to the old address, where the sublessee now lived, but which I had vacated Nov 1, 2013, and given up to the sublessee—so I did not get the notice of the hearing in time. I learned at Housing Court that Sept 3 hearing was adjourned to Oct 9—the sublessee had appeared in court Sept 3 and "represent[ed] that the sublessee was the only respondent in possession of the premises." A lawyer at Housing Court told me I should go to the Oct 9 hearing and ask that the case be discontinued against me. I will go to court, but I cannot find any information on the language for a stipulation to get the case discontinued—I want to know what is in store for me on the day—I would like to write out the stipulation of discontinuance first, if I could, but I cannot figure out where I would get that info on what to write. There is very little info on a case like mine—where I am in a holdover case but I do not live in the apartment and do not want to live in the apartment (and I certainly do not want to pay the rent and legal fees of the sublessee who did not leave). I wonder if you have any advice on the language of stipulations for discontinuing a case against a respondent in a holdover case who does not occupy the apartment.
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Re: subtenant won't leave after notice of termination

Postby TenantNet » Thu Oct 02, 2014 7:10 pm

This is a bit confusing. Can you send us a copy of the Petition, Notice of Petition, Termination Notice and Notice to Cure (if any) by Private Mail (see the PM icon and you can attach a scanned PDF document).

Do not post it publicly to the board.

What are/were the dates of your lease? The caption of the case is important - it will be on the court papers.

I wouldn't worry about the language of a stip. Often the LL's lawyer will write that, however, you should be on guard as to what it says. Try to get the words "with prejudice" in the stip, meaning they can't bring it again. The court attorney can also help with a stip.
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Re: subtenant won't leave after notice of termination

Postby angry-tenant » Thu Oct 09, 2014 7:19 pm

Hi, thanks so much for your response. Sorry I had no time to scan the documents. In any case, I am writing this in case anyone on tenant.net has a similar problem (taken to court for holdover without being an occupant of apartment). I also have a question. I ended up consulting a lawyer, who said I can just go to court and ask for a discontinuance, and that they would give it to me very likely even without a lawyer; she said if things did not work out in court, call her. I asked her about the other primary leaseholder, also a respondent (happens to be my cousin) who now works in another state. The lawyer I consulted said she can just submit an affidavit that she does not live in state. In any case, on the day of hearing, I was surprised at how antagonistic everyone was to me, from the clerk to the LL to the judge. Everyone kept saying I was responsible for my subtenant—and the lawyer for the landlord would not discontinue me, while the judge said I was going to trial, and so on. Yet when the time came when the judge said, okay, you are going to trial, and I requested an adjournment because I had no lawyer, the LL said, okay, we would like to discontinue her so we can go to trial against subtenant! Therefore, the case really is against subtenant, as I had pointed out to them in the first place. Without my consent, the judge discontinued me without prejudice from the case and told me to go home. I said I wished to be discontinued with prejudice, with no more case hanging over me, but the judge said, go home, you are discontinued. The marshall or some court policeman walked over to me as if he were going to haul me out of court. MORAL OF STORY: do not go to Housing Court without a lawyer, even if your lawyer advises it—court talks respectfully only to lawyers. Judge seemed very much on the side of landlord. SO—I was severed from the case but my cousin was not! I forgot to give the court her affidavit. It was very messy, and I had no clue after a while what was going on. QUESTION: can I submit retroactively my cousin's affidavit about being away from court (she works and lives in another state)? Have you ever heard of a retroactive submission?
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Re: subtenant won't leave after notice of termination

Postby TenantNet » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:06 pm

I'm not aware of any provisions for retroactivity. Plus, at this point it appears you ar no longer a party. Your cousin should appear and ask for the same relief the next time the case is on. Or, the cousin can ask the LL atty to amend the caption to remove him.

Why not ask the attorney with whom you previously consulted?
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Re: subtenant won't leave after notice of termination

Postby angry-tenant » Fri Oct 10, 2014 1:40 am

Thanks so much for your response. Yes, I did ask an attorney today. She will get back to me soon. Again, I find that TenantNet helps me triangulate facts, so that I have more confidence in my next moves. Your response to my questions and my research on your forums are very helpful. Thanks so much for your help!
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Re: subtenant won't leave after notice of termination

Postby innocent1997 » Fri Oct 10, 2014 9:23 am

A practical suggestion based on my experience. Keep checking this site https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/housin ... rchServlet
by typing your name there. If the landlord brings another case against you with your name, it will show up in this database.

In addition, you can check your dismissed case status. In 2 weeks, this case should disappear from the website. If it does not, OR the landlord brought another motion to bring the dismissed case back to calendar, the case status will change.
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Re: subtenant won't leave after notice of termination

Postby TenantNet » Fri Oct 10, 2014 10:11 am

Keep in mind that is just Housing Court. One can/should also check Civil Court and Supreme Court (at https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/ecourtsMain)
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Re: subtenant won't leave after notice of termination

Postby angry-tenant » Fri Oct 10, 2014 5:07 pm

Just so people know what happened (because one thing I notice on the forum is that I never know the endings!). I was discontinued (severed from case, head intact). The other primary tenant and other subtenant (4 respondents in this case) got a judgment against them to the tune of 0.00—yes, zeros—in favor of petitioner, yes, who got 0.00 money judgment against the 2 other respondents. The last respondent, the occupant who overstayed, got a 4-month stay, signing a stipulation allowing 4 more months of occupancy as long as use and occupancy fees (old rental amount, not the increased amount for new tenancy) are paid in full on time, otherwise 5-day default notice then eviction, etc. So in all the overstayer gets 8 more months in the apartment beyond the original lease. (And I do not get my security deposit in the meantime.) At the same time, one respondent was already refused a mortgage (in another state!) because of this case. In addition, that respondent lost a work benefit (employer would have paid for her house closing costs within a certain amount of time). I think the overstaying subtenant got a good outcome—so in that sense, and I am going to be honest, though I am very much a victim here—good for him! But horrible that others (me!) got dragged in. Very interesting case. Lesson learned. Of course we are all wondering if we will be slapped with legal fees. Oy vey.
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