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Mold, Leaking Pipe, and an Illegal Bedroom

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  • 09-01-2013, 09:09 PM
    sprue
    Mold, Leaking Pipe, and an Illegal Bedroom
    My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: New York

    I have been renting an apartment with two other guys and the problems have been mounting up to the point where we are threatening the landlord with not paying rent until repairs are made.

    When we first inspected the apartment everything was fine. Three weeks later when we moved in however there was a hole cut out of the floor and covered up with a board. Inside the hole is a broken water pipe that's spitting out at LEAST 100 gallons of water per day and it's quite noisy. During the first week there a plumber came out to take a look at it, commented on the amount of work it would take to fix and then left. Four months later the pipe has not been fixed and the moisture in the air is contributing to the growth of mould in the closets, kitchen and even the wood floors. There are also several other minor maintenance issues and inadequate ventilation in one bedroom causing mould to grow in dark places like under the bed.

    One of my room mates has made several requests over the course of about 6 weeks (texts to property manager every two weeks) complaining about issues in his room. After not having them fixed he decided not to pay rent.

    A couple weeks later I decide to take up the issue of the mould with the property manager and also send a written letter to the landlord and filed a complaint with 311. Two more plumbers were sent out and they both said that fixing that pipe was going to be a huge problem.

    My other room mate is so tired of living here he is preparing to find a new place to live.

    While looking for information to back our case for a violation of the warranty of habitability I discovered that the room the other tenant is living in (the guy that wants to move out) is actually an illegal bedroom. It doesn't have a window leading to the outside. So it turns out the 3 bedroom apartment which we signed a lease for is actually a 2br. I also found out that the building isn't registered with the Department of housing preservation & development.

    My concerns now are:
    Do we have a valid claim to withhold rent because of the WoH violation?
    Providing the maintenance issues were fixed, if the illegal bedroom cant be rented out can we refuse to pay the full rent because one of the three bedrooms is uninhabitable?
    Would the HPD evacuate the apartment because of an illegal bedroom?
    Can we refuse to pay rent because the property isn't registered with the HPD?
    What possible ramifications are there for the landlord for claiming the apartment was a 3br?

    Thanks!
  • 09-02-2013, 09:43 PM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Mold, Leaking Pipe, and an Illegal Bedroom
    New York does not have a law permitting you to withhold rent. It appears that you're in NYC, so read this.

    If your lease says you are renting a three bedroom apartment, and in fact there are only two legal bedrooms, you can explore the possibility that you can get out of your lease on that basis. What does the lease say about the number of bedrooms?

    Failure to register a property with the HPD subjects a landlord to a potential fine, and creates a potential defense to an action to evict you for nonpayment of rent. (The details matter.)
  • 09-02-2013, 11:09 PM
    jk
    Re: Mold, Leaking Pipe, and an Illegal Bedroom
    where is this 100 gallons of water each day going? Unless you are on a ground floor, somebody below you is getting mighty wet. One would think they would be screaming about showers 24/7, inside their apartment.
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