How to Prove an Evicition Without Any Notice

[deesw8]

My question involves an eviction in the state of: New York , NYC

my landlord evicted me with excuse of doing construction, with less than 30 days notice-he simply showed up at our door around 11pm and told us so.

I was very surprised. he also has not returned my deposit yet - over six months now.
I want to know how i can present this to small claims court- just say he illegally evicted me with less than 30 days?
the thing is in fact i did tell him i had an intention to leave 3 months prior to that, there was no records documenting this however. So i don't think he can prove i said that. Also i feel if he just came and evicted all of us like that, it's irrelevant if i expressed my intention before.

i wonder if the fact he evicted me illegally would help me to get more than the deposit back? since the eviction caused me hardships finding a new apartment and led to more transportation fees, and loss of work?


thanks for your insights!

[Mr. Knowitall]

Can you do a better job explaining the facts?

Was it something like this: You gave your landlord three months notice, he made plans to renovate the rental unit after your departure, at the end of your notice period he showed up and told you that you needed to leave on schedule, you left on your own steam and moved your own stuff out, you didn't get your security deposit back, and now you want to deny that you gave notice and to accuse him of evicting you?

Did he document why he was keeping your deposit? Do you know why he kept your deposit?

[deesw8]

Mr knowitall,

Thanks for your comments.

No, it wasn't like that- these are the details: he hinted to me before that perhaps i should go, cuz it seems all of us( me and two other roommates) were not keeping the apartment clean ( that is false- we never broke anything and it was always in good condition in common sense judgement, we also left apartment in impeccable condition and have video and photos to prove that). in fact, when i was living there, we knew he was so critical with the cleaniness, we went out of our way to be clean.

So i had mental preparation to leave, but didn't expect that one night the landlord just showed up, said to my other roommate he had to be gone by end of november, but my roommate had no intention to leave and his contract was not even up yet!
Then, it was my hunch that it made sense - he used the uncleaniness as excuse to want to have us leave, but whether he wants renovation was none of our business. And then I also realized it was irrelevant i gave him notice or not, he would have done the same to me. He didn't provide eviction notice or anything.

To me, he kept the deposit simply for greed and taking advantage out of his tenants. he seemed to only have had international students living in his properties so far, the kind that is quiet, not knowing the laws much. In fact, when i threatened that i would sue him over this, he laughed over the phone and in my face.

there was an email chain which documents our argument over the deposit - he said in email he would return deposit after getting the keys, he will send my deposit over mail - it never came.
he also wrote:"the reason you guys all move out of the house is for hte renovation because you guys did not manage the house. you know well. " that is not true either.

i feel it is legimate he is responsible for not only returning the deposit, maybe triple of the deposit, plus additional damages caused by the hardship - i incurred much transportation expense and had to throw away a lot of clothes due to the bed bug situation in apartment.

[Mr. Knowitall]

You have confirmed that you gave notice. You have implied that your landlord did not ask you to move until the end of your notice period. You have not given any indication that your landlord did more to "evict" you than ask you to in fact vacate as promised. You have not explained anything in relation to the withholding of the security deposit. So... exactly what is it that you are claiming your landlord did that was improper.

[deesw8]

he withholds deposit from all tenants in order to fund his renovation, although the tenants including myself have done nothing wrong to the apartment.
He has not returned my deposit and it's been after 10 months.
it was not us that didn't manage the apt wel, he didn't. that is why there was bed bug problems, he didn't manage that either.
he raises the rent every time someone new moves in, so by evicting us, he gets paid more.