Month-To-Month Confusion

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: New York

I've been living in the same apartment in New York for the last 4 years, going on 5. The first 3 of those, I was the roommate of the lease holder. During the last resigning of the lease, my roommate verbally requested that I be added to the lease. After he moved out, I verbally requested a new lease to sign, though none was ever provided.

I continued to pay rent on time, and assumed I had entered some month to month status, despite never receiving conformation of this outside of my checks being cashed.

Today, though, I got a call from my old roommate who was informed by the Landlord that the last 2 months of rent were missing, even though I had dropped them off. I quickly looked at my bank account and realized that they hadn't been cashed, and called the landlord myself. They told me that I had never been on the lease, and that they now only accept checks from lease holders. They were also "surprised" to hear that my old roommate had moved out, and that he was supposed to inform them of that change.

I can easily prove that I've lived there the last 4 years, and they've been cashing my personal checks for a year and a half... do I have any claim to being part of the month to month agreement? Also, since they stopped accepting my checks about 50 days ago, are they still required to give me 30 days if they ask me to leave?

I feel like I've fallen into some crack without rights, and I'm worried about being kicked out despite being a good tenant.

Can anyone offer any advice? Many thanks!!!

So you're stating that you were never added to the lease? You say "New York" - New York City? Is it a rent controlled apartment?

Thanks for responding!

Yes, New York City, Manhattan and the place is not rent controlled.

Also, I should add that my old roommate was my brother. I've been doing some research and actually came up with another question... since the lease says "the apartment may be occupied by the tenant named above, and by the immediate family of the tenant named above" with my brother's named signed, am I able to retain the lease, even though he moved out, since I'm immediate family?