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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Posts
    1

    Question Subtenant is Trying to Take Over My Rent Stabilized Apartment

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

    I'm sorry this is a long and complicated story but I REAAAALLLY need some advice!

    My parents and I have been living in a 2 bedroom rent stabilized apartment for the last 8 years. I was away at college for 4 of those years but it remained my primary residence. My parents relocated last year and I had succession rights. At the same time that they moved away, I accepted an apprenticeship that involved me traveling a lot during the year. I decided to sublet the R.S.A. to my best friend (who was homeless and needed a place to stay) for the year and in the meantime I stored a lot of my stuff at my boyfriends house who had an extra room (I didn't sign a lease or a sublease with my boyfriend) As for my R.S.A- my best friend agreed to pay the full rent directly to the landlord every month b/c I wouldn't be around to do so. Then she asked if she could be placed on the lease. I didn't think twice because I didn't know subletting and having your name on the lease were mutually exclusive. I had never rented an apartment or signed a lease before.

    A few months later the landlord's office contacts me and says that there is a problem with our lease paperwork. I was told that the old lease was never legal because my friend had no right to sign it in the first place. The apartment is rent stabilized, she wasn't my significant other, she wasn't a family member, and didn't have succession rights. Furthermore she was on the lease but wasn't certified for the apartment and anybody over the age of 18 living in the apartment had to be certified. The compliance officer who had allowed us to put my best friend on the lease had been fired (for incorrectly filing paperwork, for having tenants sign blank documents and for not carrying out recertification processes correctly and as a result, the management office was being audited. The new compliance officer drew up a new lease contract for me to sign alone. I wrote out a letter saying I was subletting my apt to my friend until the end of the lease period and that I would be moving back in August. The compliance officer stamped it and gave me permission to continue the sublet. I later saw that my lease actually gives me permission to sublet so all of this perfectly legal.

    A couple months ago I went into the management office and renewed the lease for the next 2 years. I then told my best friend that I would be moving back in August and that I would appreciate it if she would begin looking for a new place. SHE REFUSED. She said she had changed the locks and thrown away furniture that my parents left me. She says her name is on the lease so I have no right to evict her. She's a co-tenant. I told her that her name is not on the lease and that even if the original lease was still valid, it ends soon and I have renewed for the next couple years alone. SHE STILL REFUSED. So I served her a 30 day termination order. She says she isn't leaving because she will win in court. ALSO SHE IS NOW SUING ME for unpaid rent although I never lived with her, never got a copy of the keys once she changed the locks, never had access to the apt after she moved in. We had a verbal agreement that she would pay the full rent as it was less than she would pay for only a room in Manhattan and that she would leave in August. Now I am afraid that I will not be able to get her out. The management office refuses to get involved and have threatened to evict me if they are forced to get involved. My ex friend knows this and says she believes that since she entered into a lease agreement with the landlord they are the only one who can kick her out and she would rather neither of us have it than for me to have it. As far as my landlord is concerned, they never entered into a lease agreement with her, she has no right to be there, and it's my responsibility to get my subletter out.

    Does she have a legal leg to stand on in either case? i.e can she sue me for lost rent? and 2nd, will the original lease hold-up in court or will the newer lease without her name (making me subletter and not co-tenant) hold up? If I am deemed subletter then I will have the right to evict her. If I am deemed co-tenant then my landlord HAS to get involved.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: Subtenant is Trying to Take Over My Rent Stabilized Apartment

    The management office allowed your roommate to sign a lease, then apparently issued a new lease behind her back due to the property manager's errors. I'm not sure why they (or you) believe that will somehow make the prior lease magically disappear into the ether. You chose to make her a co-tenant when you added her to the lease, and your landlord issued a lease giving her that status - neither of you can just wish that away. Her rights to continue in occupancy or renew her own tenancy are a matter of contract, so you need somebody to review the lease she signed and advise you.

    This is already in court. Time to lawyer up.

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