Landlord issues vol. idiots

[alchemiss]

Anyone else have to deal with this crap? I'll try to make this short

Used to live in Harlem, the brownstone was owned by idiots, to say the least. We had a terrible mouse problem, among many other issues in the building thatthey wouldn't fix, so I told them I was moving out. The landlord flipped out about the walls being painted (even though the super said it was fine) so Itold her okay keep my deposit for this months rent and if necessary call me about any other bills for cost of paint (even though the super said we could paintand it didn't matter). This was in February.

In April/May I got a new phone and didn't use my old one much. So finally the other day I go through my voicemails and my old landlord called me July 15thabout money I owed them. What the hell is wrong with people? How do they not know how to properly run a building with only 4 tenants? I know 2 of the othertenants and the landlord never once asked them how to reach me.

Seriously though, there is nothing they can do is there?

 

[youngjedifresh]

dude.... i used to have the same issues with my landlord in Harlem... no matter where u live in manhattan the landlors are always straight clowns who donothing productive but collect a check. i feel you my dude to the max. you should try to get your attorney on it. landlords are shook of them...plus how canyou owe them money if you let them have the deposit?

 

[alchemiss]

Seriously fam I feel like all landlords in NY are grimey. The stories I have are endless. Technically I don't even owe them anything. They were tryingto make me pay like $50 or something for the paint

 

[lurkin2long]

Originally Posted by Alchemiss

Seriously fam I feel like all landlords in NY are grimey. The stories I have are endless. Technically I don't even owe them anything. They were trying to make me pay like $50 or something for the paint

i want to hear more stories please

 

[alchemiss]

Hopefully you're serious...

Used to live off Jamaica n 107th, me and my friend rented a basement of a house.. The dude told us we could keep our bikes in the "lobby" of thebuilding.. Well I had this bmx bike that was pretty small, could be for kids.. One day I came back and my bike was gone, it was in the landlords back yard(which we weren't allowed to go in).. he straight up took my bike for one of his kids then lied about it

The building in Harlem was ridiculous though. Our old super was always high as %#$#, and on something other than green. He was always chillin at MarcusGarvey park which was just down the block from us.. Anyone who knows that park knows that its where all the crackheads like to chill.. Dude was always bringingfiends into the building.. hookers.. you name it.

But seriously, do yall think I should pay for the paint? It is the law to repaint all previously rented apartments anyways before you rent to someone new..And they waited 4-5 months to hit me up about it.. I think they are just in a money situation and trying to get stuff from me that I don't even owe them

 

[lurkin2long]

bring them to one of those small claims TV court shows.........flip it on them have them pay you

 

[dirtylicious]

Originally Posted by Alchemiss

Seriously fam I feel like all landlords in NY are grimey. The stories I have are endless. Technically I don't even owe them anything. They were trying to make me pay like $50 or something for the paint

$50?... you're getting off easy.
your mistake was just letting them dictate what happened to the apt.

You SHOULD have scheduled for the landlord to visit and have him inspect the apt before you turned the keys in. That way you could dispute anything henitpicked at. Since you didn't... they can claim the paint....and yes, you would lose in court.

 

[nawth21]

^^ Basically. In most places you have to paint before you move out (regardless if by law they have to paint or not) or you pay to have it repainted/lose yourdeposit. Personally if I could keep the deposit I'd be thrilled with paying $50 and not having to paint

 

[alchemiss]

I forgot to mention the deposit we paid was $100 more than what we should have. It just a really crappy situation. I paid for an exterminator, plumber, didmanual labor with lifting stoves down flights of stairs, fixing things, when they should've been doing all of that or paying for it. They did come andlook at the apartment before and she wouldn't even give me an answer about paying anything extra. I just don't understand why they would wait 4-5months to contact me, and also never even asked the other tenants (who they know I'm friends with) how to reach me (when they left me the message in July). I honestly think they are just trying to hustle me- they do not have the money or contacts to take me to court.. and they also know that I could take them tocourt for all the illegal things they did in the building.

 

[dirtylicious]

if they take you to court...you'll lose.
but if you want to hedge your bets that they won't...I don't see the problem with that.

 

[alchemiss]

Originally Posted by Dirtylicious

if they take you to court...you'll lose.
but if you want to hedge your bets that they won't...I don't see the problem with that.

I really want to just send them a letter and a check for like $200 so they will leave me alone.. think that's what I will end up doing. Thanksfor the help. I'm more concerned with them bothering me more than anything.

 

[mangudai954]

Originally Posted by Alchemiss

he straight up took my bike for one of his kids then lied about it

 

[vagixxer]

Originally Posted by Dirtylicious

Originally Posted by Alchemiss

Seriously fam I feel like all landlords in NY are grimey. The stories I have are endless. Technically I don't even owe them anything. They were trying to make me pay like $50 or something for the paint

$50?... you're getting off easy.
your mistake was just letting them dictate what happened to the apt.

You SHOULD have scheduled for the landlord to visit and have him inspect the apt before you turned the keys in. That way you could dispute anything he nitpicked at. Since you didn't... they can claim the paint....and yes, you would lose in court.

Dirty is right here. As a landlord with a few properties here in VA laws do not work in the tenants favor. I know you'd like to be all gung hoand have a bunch of your friends tell you your right an that you shouldn't pay it ETC. Fact of the matter is if you go to court he will probably take youfor much more than that. I don't know the sq-ft of your apt, but I can tell you that $50 for paint including supplies to paint is beyond cheap. Some paintprices are crazy seriously and your complaining about $50 bucks. If you go to court he can say ANYTHING he wants and you will LOOSE. I'd keep that in mindand just pay him to get off my back. You have nothing to substantiate your claims other than your mouth. That will not bid you well in court. Do the smartthing and take your L and be careful what buildings you move into in the future because trust me they can rent that place out to someone else just as easy asthey got you in there regardless of your hard feelings.

 

[alchemiss]

^^^ I agree with you. I think you guys missed my point- I'm not complaining at the $50. I'm complaining that we talked maturely about the situationand they were supposed to contact me, but never did (this lady was a nag so since she never called I figured they knew they were in the wrong, which was wrongof me I should've contacted them to clear things up). Then in July (4-5 months later) they want to "resolve" the issue. They are bullies.

 

[jawnyquest]

Originally Posted by youngJEDIFRESH

dude.... i used to have the same issues with my landlord in Harlem... no matter where u live in manhattan the landlors are always straight clowns who do nothing productive but collect a check.

werd

cant wait til i move off this island..

 

[yungmatt]

I hope I never have a landlord

 

[vagixxer]

Originally Posted by Alchemiss

^^^ I agree with you. I think you guys missed my point- I'm not complaining at the $50. I'm complaining that we talked maturely about the situation and they were supposed to contact me, but never did (this lady was a nag so since she never called I figured they knew they were in the wrong, which was wrong of me I should've contacted them to clear things up). Then in July (4-5 months later) they want to "resolve" the issue. They are bullies.

I understand what you mean. It's just one of those things sadly you can't do anything about. As a tenant you have to do your due diligence. Slum lordsare shady and know that the law works for them. You have landlords out here not paying their mortgages and just pocketing peoples rent and then the tenant getskicked out. So you think a court will help you in regards to a deposit? For future reference ALWAYS take pictures of everything when you move in and when youmove out as it can not be disputed by your landlord that the condition of your apartment was any different.

 

[eight2one]

apartment complexes are just as grimey.

 

[daytona 5000]

My parents were landlords until their scum tenants stopped paying rent, so my parents couldn't pay the mortgage so they had to sell their condo's.
People had Section 8 and still couldn't make payments

 

[knivesdesu]

I had a landlord like that in Chicago a while back... Some woman in her 30's who had no idea what she was doing. We had all types of problems, leak fromthe toilet up stairs (disgusting mess), all kinds of shoddy carpentry (fixtures would just fall out of the wall from being improperly anchored, etc.), etc.,etc.
She would do all kinds of grimey stuff too: one month she was going on vacation so she wanted the rent early, when I told her hell no was I paying my rentearly so she could go on vacation she sent her brother over to try to threaten me into giving me the money. Another month she couldn't afford to meet hermortgage payment so she came by the crib and told me that my roomate never gave her our rent money (she insisted on one check so we'd have to pay him andthen have him pay her) and then refused to leave until I cut her a check from my account (she had already cashed the first check and then got heated when westopped payment on the first one later) and told me she wanted me to pay the late fee for her mortgage payment on top of that because it was our fault she wasbroke. She would just unlock the door to our apartment and let her self in, start nosing around, just walk into our bedrooms and wake us up in the AM. Shewould tell us we weren't allowed to have our friends or girlfriends sleep over, etc., etc.
This all came to a head when my roomate got cancer and had to move out. When we couldn't find another roomate to fill his spot we let her know (over amonth in advance) the situation and told her we would have to move out of the spot. She immediately told us she would be keeping our security deposit which Icould deal with, even though the apartment was SPOTLESS, but she then tried to charge us an extra months rent because we didn't get out until the 4th ofthe month. I tried to reason with her about that and she claimed that I was liable for the rent on the entire rest of the lease (legally I was liable to giveher reasonable time to find a new tenant which she made no attempts at doing) and she was doing me a favor by just keeping the deposit and charging me an extramonth. (Deposit was almost $500 more than a months rent BTW) Again I told her I wasn't paying it and she showed up with her husband (whom I hadn't seenin the entire year I had lived there) who tried to get in my face like her brother had and intimidate me on moving day telling me I "couldn't"leave until I cut him a check for whatever amount they felt was fair. Luckily we told them we were leaving late in the day and by the time they got there wewere moving the last box to the truck and after suggesting that I would have to call the police if I wasn't allowed to leave and asking them to take it upwith the lawyer I had been consulting and after telling me that they were in the process of suing me, they begrudgingly let me leave.

On leaving I simply sat down and did some real research and then wrote them a long letter detailing the many ways in which they had repeatedly violated myrights as a renter, pointing out that due to some of the maintenance issues which they repeatedly refused to fix (it took a MONTH to fix a toilet that wasleaking sewage into our bathroom!) and many other issues that in reality I should have been withholding rent until these problems were addressed. Finally Irefered them to a family friend, who was also a lawyer and agreed to help me out, telling them if they had any other questions they could contact him at thefollowing number and that I didn't want anything else to do with them. They ended up getting the deposit, but I didn't pay them that last months rentand sure as hell didn't pay out the remainder of my lease. In my experience you just have to be polite but firm with landlords, while I have had a couplegood ones (one in BK no less), in my experience I find that if they think you are an easy vic they will go out of their way to steal from you. If they happento start trying to take advantage of me, I just let them know right away that I understand what they can and can't demand from me, and I also am aware ofwhat they are legally required to do for me. After that experience, I have found that when a landlord realizes you are not a tenant they can take advantage ofthe relationship really improves.