My question involves a security deposit in the State of: New York
Hello,
Thank you for all the advice here.
I rented a work studio on a floor with other studios, for the past three years, at about $750/mo, it was a commercial sublease, overtenant (an architect) on the same floor.
Initially I said I would renew this year’s lease. Then a water flood damages equipment and artwork, strangely similar to last year’s winter flood. A few days before lease was due, I said I was questioning the decision. Ultimately when the lease was due, I simply returned it.
The landlord (overtenant) asked when I would be out, I said a couple of days to pack; maybe the weekend would be best to move. He asked when he could advertise and show the space, I said advertise now. He immediately placed and ad. There was no discussion of cost for the few extra days; it was implied to be at no cost. I assumed it would balance out the first 10 days I couldn’t move in because I was given bad keys.
I moved out smoothly. I repaired the wall where shelves were installed. I came back to get my $1950 deposit returned. The landlord pointed to a part of the lease and wanted $250 per day that I stayed over. We argued and he came down to the prorated amount of $26 per day(5), total $130. He calculated it right in front of me. He asked for a couple of months of time to return the remaining $1820, I allowed that (though I thought both issues, the cost per day, and the overall delay were dirty and unfair).
I returned a couple of months later. Landlord angrily says I must deal with his lawyer.
Lawyer writes me and cites the lease about the $250 per day clause. I have it in my lease copy, it states “holds over… without Overtenant’s consent…”. Additionally his math is wrong and offers to return $650 of my deposit if I sign a general release.
I call lawyer, a nice guy, and tell him that I had consent to stay. More importantly, I would be satisfied with our previous agreement, please present this to your client. Lawyer suggests I call landlord and settle this. I would prefer to, but told him that landlord said I must deal with lawyer. He said he would call landlord.
I email the landlord, explain the lawyer call, and say that I would be satisfied with our previous agreement.
Lawyer emails me saying his client will take no less than the $1250, client denies that we had a previous agreement (!) and that I must cease and desist from contacting his client.
Now,
1) a lawyer friend says the $250 clause is probably not valid because it is unnaturally high (10x) and doesn’t represent actual damages.
2) Most importantly, I had consent from the landlord to stay a few extra days (verbal), invalidating that clause.
3) We had the previous agreement for him to return $1820 of my deposit(verbal).
4) I have satisfied all his requests and he has suffered no damages from me.
The landlord is angry, and seeks to punish me, because I gave short notice for not renewing the lease. But really, I can’t take the annual flood damage, I would have preferred to stay.
What should I do about this? Can the landlord actually be denying our verbal agreements? How can that actually be done? Where will that leave me? How can I get my $1820 returned? Though I would prefer my entire deposit. What are the legal points here? Could I take the offensive somewhere and throw something back at him? Should I?
Thank you,
Brian M.
Manhattan

