Ceiling Leak - 222 East 10th Street

I used to live in this building. The landlord, Lance Landers, has paintings made by a friend hung on the public hallways of every floor. I moved out six months ago and he has yet to send me my security deposit because he claims someone moving a table out of my apartment did $800 worth of damage to one of the paintings. He will not send over photos of the supposedly damaged "art", won't let me see it, and won't let me send an appraiser over. I found out from other tenants after the fact that he has done this in the past. Even if you move out without any wear to your actual unit, as I did, he will find a reason to withhold for damages to the "public areas" of the building - these worthless paintings.

If you feel you have a case bring him to small claims court.

I did; flew all the way back to CA to have our court date, and his brother Jon emailed me the last minute to tell me Lance didn't plan to show up to court. Instead, Jon would be requesting an adjournment AND filing a frivolous counter-claim (saying he hadn't really let me break my lease) that would require me to fly back and forth from California repeatedly. He wanted to screw me by costing me more money to fly back than they'd withheld for my deposit. At the same time, he offered me $300 to settle, because he knew there was no way he'd win if I actually took him to court. I talked him into a bit more, but had to make the economically rational decision. A real schmuck.

I hope he does this to someone who still lives in NYC after the move out, and they nail his ass to the wall.

(All the way back FROM CA, I mean)