Need help with a major leak in my co-op

I have an issue where my management is HORRIBLE. Please take a look at these videos of my ceiling: https://youtu.be/VxcPqEK4Re0 https://youtu.be/uIRIpZ84HRQ I moved into this co-op apartment in Midwood Brooklyn in 2000. When I moved in I had leaks and I would call management to have them fix it. They would come in and just replace a piece of the sheetrock. Every time it rained it would continue to... [more]

I have an issue where my management is HORRIBLE. Please take a look at these videos of my ceiling: https://youtu.be/VxcPqEK4Re0 https://youtu.be/uIRIpZ84HRQ I moved into this co-op apartment in Midwood Brooklyn in 2000. When I moved in I had leaks and I would call management to have them fix it. They would come in and just replace a piece of the sheetrock. Every time it rained it would continue to happen and I've had my ENTIRE ceiling replaced. I had my ENTIRE wall at a different time replaced. Yet when it rains heavy outside, it would get ruined again. They hired this roofer from Bangladesh who barely speaks English and he has Mexicans who don't speak any English to get on scaffolds and grind away at the cement in between bricks. Every time they get on a scaffold they ruin the brick wall even further. I've been trying to tell management to get a structural engineer or some other real professional to inspect what's going on and they never care to hear what I have to say and continually use this horrible roofing company. I've caught the Bangladeshi guy on video prying away on the roof with a crow bar and then telling me he'll definitely find the leak... It's been like this for at least 10 years with this roofing company and just last month I decided to go to landlord/tenant court after I had enough of the managements' empty promises. I stopped paying maintenance and put the amounts into a separate checking account. This is now the second month I haven't paid them and I'm worried about them maybe placing a lien on my apartment. Other tenants said they've done it before and management never does anything like that but I'm worried anyway. I've gone to two lawyers. The first one wrote a letter to begin suing them, but she passed away shortly after. I went to another co-op lawyer in Manhattan, but his fee was $400 for the first hour and asked for a $2000 retainer. I figured lawyers would just drag things out and I don't have this kind of money. In landlord/tenant court, it was painful being there all day, and the management didn't even show up to the court date. The judge told me that I can start this case again and each time the landlord won't show up, he'll just get a bigger penalty. The thing is there is no landlord here, only management. I also don't think they care about penalties as I have 71 violations on my apartment because I call 311 each time it rains like this. I don't know what to do at this point. I can't afford a lawyer and don't think any lawyer will do this for free. I will go back to restart the violations case at landlord/tenant court and see what happens again. Does anyone have any ideas what I could do to get this fixed? I even considered going to State Supreme court to get back maintenance for the past 6/7 years since that's what the expensive lawyer said I could do and I figured maybe I can do that on my own. [less]