My question involves an eviction in the state of: New York
From February 2014 to February 2015 we rented from Mr and Mrs Smith. They were odd but pleasant. We had no heat in the winter as they found it cheaper for us to just use an electric heater. We lived in the upstairs of their house which they hadn't gone through the legal red tape for so most of the top floor was on the same circuit, which was a pain, and anytime someone turned on a faucet somewhere, the shower would nearly burn you. We overlooked this, and even their flakiness, because it was cheaper than anywhere else. The rent was $600 monthly and the security deposit was also $600.
Between December and June each year, they go to Florida. In January, during one of our rare phone calls, we extended an offer to attend our wedding as they'd been so nice and always wanted to chat with us. Mr. Smith sort of stuttered out a "Uhh uh we'll have to see" so we assumed he was just frazzled about something.
Then at the end of February, I mean tail end of February, they tell us a realtor is coming within the week because they're selling. They give us no date to be out by, no formal notice, and tell us not to rush because "it won't happen overnight". This was a major cause of stress for us as we have two dogs, one of which is, at most, 1/3 Pit (the rescue didn't know this, he looked like a Chihuahua and so did his sister). As soon as a place opened for March 1, we jumped on it and moved our stuff out as quickly as we could. But this automatically took us into March because there was no sane way of getting out before 3/1 and we wore down quick, especially with him working full time and me working part time while going to school full time.
With only the stuff in the basement and a few things upstairs remaining at the end of March, despite telling us not to rush, they suddenly called and said it needed out that day, the next day at the latest. Let me stress this - they had not given us a final day, no mention of 30 days was ever uttered, and we were never told we would lose our deposit for any kind of "infraction" whatsoever. This wasn't even discussed when we moved in and no paperwork was signed. We were lead to believe the deposit was to cover any damages and we honestly didn't anticipate this being a problem until they got weird. Our arrangement had been so informal up until this last issue that it was like a kick to the gut.
For an entire year, my fiance was the go to guy. If they needed anything and had to call from Florida, his was the number to call. They didn't even have mine. Yet when giving us the news at the last goddamn second, they balked at calling him and tried to reach me instead. They sorted through their phone records, went clear back to Februrary 2014, and found what they thought was my number but was actually my fiance's mother's number. Even after realizing it wasn't my number, they continued to avoid speaking directly to my fiance by calling his Mom. That was when we knew it could get dirty.
We have now physically been out of the apartment for over a month and we have had our stuff out for close to 2 weeks. They haven't called once and no check has arrived so we decided to call. When Mrs. Smith answered, she said we'd have to talk to Mr. Smith and she'd tell him we had called. This was at least 6 hours ago. If they want to keep the $600, do we have any leg to stand on in a case against them? As we were essentially informally, and even indirectly, evicted, I am particularly curious about this:
For both regulated and unregulated apartments, landlords must give formal notice of their intention to obtain legal possession of the apartment.
And this:
When a tenant is evicted, the landlord may not retain the tenant’s personal belongings or furniture. The landlord must give the tenant a reasonable amount of time to remove all belongings
From February 2014 to February 2015 we rented from Mr and Mrs Smith. They were odd but pleasant. We had no heat in the winter as they found it cheaper for us to just use an electric heater. We lived in the upstairs of their house which they hadn't gone through the legal red tape for so most of the top floor was on the same circuit, which was a pain, and anytime someone turned on a faucet somewhere, the shower would nearly burn you. We overlooked this, and even their flakiness, because it was cheaper than anywhere else. The rent was $600 monthly and the security deposit was also $600.
Between December and June each year, they go to Florida. In January, during one of our rare phone calls, we extended an offer to attend our wedding as they'd been so nice and always wanted to chat with us. Mr. Smith sort of stuttered out a "Uhh uh we'll have to see" so we assumed he was just frazzled about something.
Then at the end of February, I mean tail end of February, they tell us a realtor is coming within the week because they're selling. They give us no date to be out by, no formal notice, and tell us not to rush because "it won't happen overnight". This was a major cause of stress for us as we have two dogs, one of which is, at most, 1/3 Pit (the rescue didn't know this, he looked like a Chihuahua and so did his sister). As soon as a place opened for March 1, we jumped on it and moved our stuff out as quickly as we could. But this automatically took us into March because there was no sane way of getting out before 3/1 and we wore down quick, especially with him working full time and me working part time while going to school full time.
With only the stuff in the basement and a few things upstairs remaining at the end of March, despite telling us not to rush, they suddenly called and said it needed out that day, the next day at the latest. Let me stress this - they had not given us a final day, no mention of 30 days was ever uttered, and we were never told we would lose our deposit for any kind of "infraction" whatsoever. This wasn't even discussed when we moved in and no paperwork was signed. We were lead to believe the deposit was to cover any damages and we honestly didn't anticipate this being a problem until they got weird. Our arrangement had been so informal up until this last issue that it was like a kick to the gut.
For an entire year, my fiance was the go to guy. If they needed anything and had to call from Florida, his was the number to call. They didn't even have mine. Yet when giving us the news at the last goddamn second, they balked at calling him and tried to reach me instead. They sorted through their phone records, went clear back to Februrary 2014, and found what they thought was my number but was actually my fiance's mother's number. Even after realizing it wasn't my number, they continued to avoid speaking directly to my fiance by calling his Mom. That was when we knew it could get dirty.
We have now physically been out of the apartment for over a month and we have had our stuff out for close to 2 weeks. They haven't called once and no check has arrived so we decided to call. When Mrs. Smith answered, she said we'd have to talk to Mr. Smith and she'd tell him we had called. This was at least 6 hours ago. If they want to keep the $600, do we have any leg to stand on in a case against them? As we were essentially informally, and even indirectly, evicted, I am particularly curious about this:
Quote:
For both regulated and unregulated apartments, landlords must give formal notice of their intention to obtain legal possession of the apartment.
And this:
Quote:
When a tenant is evicted, the landlord may not retain the tenant’s personal belongings or furniture. The landlord must give the tenant a reasonable amount of time to remove all belongings
Eviction Process: Informal, Indirect Eviction. No Timeframe Given. Landlord Keeping Deposit
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