Can landlords get any shittier?

So two friends of mine looked at a place they liked, signed a lease, the move in date comes and goes, and the current resident never left. a month later they go somewhere else. the problem? the landlord wants to keep the deposit!

Seriously? like really? how much more of a piece of shit can you be? he even threatened to counter sue for up to a year's worth of rent if they try to take it to court. it's now several months later and the original resident is STILL in that apartment. He failed to provide what the lease obligated, and more importantly, double booked the apartment. clear violations of the lease they signed, yet this turd actually thinks he can get away with this.

My friends have someone in the building keeping an eye on that apartment, they want to wait until that guy finally moves out and a new lease is signed before they go to court. I think they should just file now, i can't imagine any court siding with this slumlord.

and apparently there is an exception in small claims court, while the typical max $ amount you can sue is $5000, in these cases the landord could counter sue for far more than that. nice double standard you lawless court system.

Tags: court, landlord, money

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Comment by Chris Tellet on June 8, 2011 at 6:58pm: My bad. The source is here

http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/LAWSSEAF.cgi?QUERYDATA=RPP223-a

Check the lease they signed. New York City Landlord/Tenant law implies in every lease that the apartment will be delivered vacant of the previous tenant.

Comment by Darren Levine on June 8, 2011 at 6:55pm: chris your post got cutoff, if copying from another source, first paste into notepad then recopy and paste

Comment by Chris Tellet on June 8, 2011 at 6:46pm

 Real Property Law  §  223-a. Remedies of lessee when possession is not delivered.In the absence of an express provision to the contrary, there shall be  implied in every lease of real property a condition that the lessor will deliver possession  at the beginning of the term. In the event of breach of such implied condition the lessee shall have the right to rescind  the  lease and  to  recover  the consideration paid. Such right shall not be deemed inconsistent with any right of action he may have to recover damages.

In short: Delivery of a vacant apartment is REQUIRED unless the lease states otherwise.

Comment by Darren Levine on June 8, 2011 at 2:07pm: hey it looks like there is a list, but it's not very useful to those who want to share their story of why a landlord is bad.... http://www.pubadvocate.nyc.gov/landlord-watchlist

Comment by Howard Redding Magillicutty on June 8, 2011 at 1:56pm: a liter of pepsi in his gas tank should balance out the karma nicely on your friend's behalf. I wish there was a death penalty for scumbag landlords like this. BRING HIM DOWN

Comment by Eric Gordon on June 8, 2011 at 1:26pm: I would love to see a "Bad Landlords" list for Astoria. It could really be a great resource. Maybe a constantly updated thread here on WLA?

I have to say I've had two different landlords and they've been wonderful. My girlfriend lives in a Pistilli owned building. She likes to use the word "slum lord." I'll leave it at that.

Comment by Darren Levine on June 8, 2011 at 1:14pm: Rob it's not my case, it's two friends. and actually landlords have a list of bad tenants, so there absolutely should be a bad landlords list.

Comment by Rob james on June 8, 2011 at 1:09pm: Darren-

You can take him to small claims court and HE WILL WIN and then some! It will only cost you about $35-40 to file the claim. Its definitely worth it. Dont listen to the landlord he is definitely a piece of shit scum bag...In the mean time I would post the name of the landlord / company so other people are aware of this.

There should be a site that rates landlords / companies!!!

Comment by Eric Gordon on June 7, 2011 at 8:57am: How about we start naming names?

Comment by Lauren Rodriguez on June 6, 2011 at 5:49pm: I would recommend that your friend first contact the NY attorney general's office- they have a special division that deals with settling security deposit issues with landlords. I recommend she try this method first, because it's a lot more simple and less time consuming, and once you file in court, the attorney general's office wont intervene.

As far as your friend wanting to wait it out, if the facts provided above are complete and accurate, there is no chance in hell that the landlord would be able to keep the deposit, I mean, a judge/arbitrator would laugh at him. His threat to countersue for a years worth of rent is beyond laughable, even if he had done everything right, and your friend was the one who breached, he wouldn't be able to recover a years worth of rent. The reality is he has no claim- he breached a contract (the lease), so not only can your friend sue for the security deposit, but she may even have a chance of getting additional damages for the breach of contract- reliance, etc.

I myself have been dealing with a scummy Astoria landlord dispute for the past year in court. The guy agreed to let my roommate take over the lease for the apartment (and allow me to move out) but then said he would get to keep my security deposit. Bottom line is he didnt' suffer any damages, and re-signed a lease with my roommate, so his convoluted theory as to why he's entitled to my security wont hold up in court, but he's managed to delay the court date over and over, and it will be a year in July since I moved out. The real problem is that much of the property owners in Astoria are complete morons.