I am in dispute with the landlord for the past few months. This landlord started a construction above my apartment and created a very unlivable situation. Yet the LL refused to make any rental concession. Eventually we received a holdover notice from their lawyer and we ourselves retained our own lawyer. We have been negotiating the lease buyout since we have a lease till March.
It turned out that our apartment was illegal (ground floor) and according to our lawyer's advice, we stopped paying rent and both the lawyer and ourselves notified the LL side (both the LL and the opposing attorney). The thing is, when we signed the lease back in March, we already gave them 12 months worth of check so that they can deposit on the first of every month. (Which I should not have done but I did this to please the LL at that time)
So even after we notified them that we would not be paying rent, the LL continued depositing checks and therefore, these checks bounced. Last week, the LL's harrassment went out of hand and we reported to the police. In turn, I was arrested for grand larceny because according to the claim, we told the LL it's ok to deposit checks, let them bounced and never made good for 4 months! (which is about $5600 in total since the rent is $1400/mo) Which is a bull since it's the LL who didn't follow what we and our attorney said and went ahead and deposited them anyway!
I really think the charge should be dropped. I mean, can this "grand larceny" claim even be valid in this context?? Even at the arraignment, the judge was saying, "Why did this land in my court? Isn't this like L&T matter?" I'm released on ROR and my next hearing is in mid January.

