Tenant Rights

Yes, if you refuse to leave you will then become a "holdover tenant" and your landlord will have to take the necessary legal steps to evict you. It will take him a ood 4-6 months to get you out, but trust me you do not want that on your record.

you could be a real jerk and tell the landlord if he doesnt give you a couple extra weeks you will stay anyway til he evicts you, but that is a really slimey move, and I would definately say keep it clean, leave and sublet a place til your new place is ready.

If your lease is up your lease is up. If the landlord refuses to extend the lease that is his or her prerogative. do not holdover just to be a prick. he or she has bills to pay too. Go on craigslist for a short stay or sublet.

You can have the moving company hold your stuff in storage so you won't have to move twice. Meanwhile look for a temporary sublet or stay at a hotel (see if you can strike a deal with a local hotel for a LT stay).

oh my! my condo won't finished!
wheres my little poopsie gonna live!, she hates hotels and will pee everywhere!
the horror! the outrage!
i may have to slumit with my sister in the hamptons or god forbid i may have to call Bruce!

Tennants rights --what about about the right of the owner of your apartment who spent probably close to his life savings on the apt and is in hock up to his eyeballs. Yeah that's right go threaten him that you are going to not abide by the terms of your lease and force him to go through the leagl process to evict your ass if he doesn't let you stay.

such bad karma to screw your landlord this way. plus, your landlord can make your life a living hell.

i think you got your answer, poopsie.

While I admit it sucks that your landlord won't permit you to stay an extra month or so until you can move, I do agree with most of the posters here that you should put your stuff in storage and get a sublet/temporary housing until your condo is ready.

I'm a big fan of tenant's rights, rent regulations, etc., and even I agree that it would be dishonorable and foolish of you to stay beyond your lease. Just as your own new condo has a construction schedule that affects YOUR life, and you hope the scores and scores of people who might possibly cause delays don't do so, your landlord has scheduled all the contractors, etc., to begin work on his house at a certain time, with an expected move-in date. He's set those dates with your lease-end in mind, out of courtesy and in a law-abiding way.

okay, thanks for everyone's comments. i agree that the right course of action is to leave and sublet. but another question: the landlord has asked us to vacate by 5/31 (even though our lease is up 6/30) because they are starting construction (demolition on floors other than ours and scaffolding on both sides of the building) and they "don't want to inconvenience us". for this, they are willing to give us may rent for free. we are in the top floor of a 4 story brownstone, first floor retail and 3 apts. the other 2 tenants are vacating 5/31, the retail store is staying. i think we'd rather stay and hope that our condo's ready by june 30 (which is still a distinct possibility), but wondering if anyone has ever had this experience and if the vermin/dust is really as big an issue as they're telling me it will be

you do not have to vacate a lease until it is up, period. If the landlord makes the apartment uninhabitable (a term of art, but can be based upon unreasonable construction), that is a constructive eviction and you can proceed legally against him or her for rent paid. However, how this will come out in the wash is, you refuse to leave 5/31, pay May rent, pay June rent, if the construction is truly unreasonable wich it sounds like it may be byt the landlord's own admission, you would sue landlord for June rent (after paying it) due to said condition. Since you are leaving end of June anyway, this is a messy way to handle this. You cannot simply refuse to pay June rent in anticipation of the construction being unreasonable. Well, you could, but this would not look favorable to a judge should landlord sue you for June rent, which he/she might do. Normally, upon constructive eviction, you;d pay the rent into an escrow account which a Judge would later award to whomever was not at fault as he/she saw fit. My advice, live rent free in May and get out. You'll avoid massive headaches and avoid pissing off the landlord. Not that you care but it sounds like he/she is being reasonable in this situation.

Also the landlord surely has access to legal advice & would know just how unpleasant to make the construction without actually breaking the law. Living in a hostile construction environment could be just miserable & imagine having to move your things out while construction is going on all around. I'd say the thing to do is vacate when the landlord wants you to & call in the good karma.

also, does LL have one month (or more) security on you?

You do not want to live in the top floor of a townhouse undergoing that kind of construction. Trust me I lived in the top floor of a townhouse going through less construction than that and I would never ever do that again.

thanks - yes, the LL has one month security. they offered that we could use the deposit to pay april rent, have may for free and then move out 5/31. maybe this is the best idea, but finding the appropriate sub let now is difficult since we don't yet have a great read on whether the apt will be ready in june or august.

Did your sales contract with the new condo stipulate a hard completion date? Assuming its a major development, I'm sure it did not, but that should have been something you negotiated for. If that date is not met, and such a hard date was listed in the contract, I would negotiate a credit against the sale price due to the inconvenience.

not ready till june or august.....Sounds like "could be October." Good luck.

I agree with #18. Also, your current LL may know other landlords who can help you with a shortterm lease. If you play 'nice' to your current LL you should have a conversation with him vis-avis- "do you know anyone, can you help". etc.