Help with unhelpful landlord

"I do not recall this and will not have access to the lease for a while."

What? Please explain this one.

well, regardless if there was such clause in your lease, there should also be a clause in the lease that entitles you to "quiet and peaceful enjoyment of the property" and if you are unable to enjoy your space as such, perhaps you do have grounds from that standpoint - the rest sounds complex and I am not sure I can comment on that.

Guy, you want help without details, you don't have a copy of your lease? I think you know what you need to do first. You can't do anything, get anything etc. unless you do one of the following
1 - know all the facts
2 - be really good at bluffing and negotiating

Also, WHY do people sign leases without understanding what they are signing? This special "non-abatement" provision would obviously have had to be a rider on a form lease.

well, regardless if there was such clause in your lease, there should also be a clause in the lease that entitles you to "quiet and peaceful enjoyment of the property"

Yes, but if there was a rider that negated this, made the lessee aware of the construction, specifically stated that the move was allowed or the price was given because of the construction, then this guy has NO grounds. The story anyway says that the construction is taking place during business hours. If you want to check up on the building construction permit, you should do that in the event that perhaps the weekend construction isn't accounted for, and if not, you should call 311.

geeclub, right, I thought about that as well. Also, I thought that when a person signed a legal contract that they would have to be provided with a copy of it immediately (once again, not sure what the context of this is so)

>Slope11217
>"I do not recall this and will not have access to the lease for a while."
>What? Please explain this one.

I lease is in storage. I am traveling and am frustrated that I will not know the exact language I signed off to until I get back and go to the storage facility!

But I can at least tell you that the landlord did not disclose to me that they were planning on doing construction, and they could not have known all of it when I signed the lease (for example, the apartment next door, the source of much of the noisy construction, had been occupied by the same tenant for >10 years, and she did not move out until about 5 months after I moved in).

I did call 311 a month or two ago and, unfortunately, the construction hours are legal.

My experience is that while construction sucks, there's nothing you can do about it. The landlord is certainly entitled to do work on apartments in their building. Not sure about your other annoyances, since you don't want to disclose them.

I've had pretty good success with playing hardball with landlords when appropriate (i.e. witholding/reducing rent, combined with nice, polite letters explaining why I am doing so). But I always made sure I was on solid legal ground before going that route.

Unfortunately, construction (with proper permit, of course) during business hours is indeed legal and there's not likely much you can do about it. "Peaceful enjoyment" generally covers nuisances like barking dogs, incessant music (say, from a nearby bar) and that sort of thing. Legal construction (during legal hours) is a different issue altogether.

You accuse the landlord of not disclosing the construction plans, yet then say he 'could not have known all of it when I signed the lease'. Huh? So then how could he have 'disclosed' anything to you in advance? All this said, if the construction drags on interminably you could check to see whether permits have expired.

>>Assuming the lease contained such provisions, are they legal?<<
The answer is yes; you agreed to then by signing the lease. No one forced you to sign, and you had the opportunity to cross out or negotiate any item that didn't sit well.

I cannot speak to your 'landlord-imposed annoyances' as you haven't described them, but from what you have described it does not sound as though you have much recourse here at all. It is highly unlikely you could terminate your lease without penalty. That said, it is possible you could work something out with your landlord, perhaps paying half of the remaining 4 months' rent for early release from your obligation.

Finally, a note about your lease--it is a legal document and should not be kept 'in storage'. The original belongs in a bank box, or, at the very least, in a fire-proof safe at home. You should keep a copy on hand so it can be referred to when necessary.

"there should also be a clause in the lease that entitles you to "quiet and peaceful enjoyment of the property." This is actually a common myth. The covenant of quiet enjoyment actually has nothing to do with noise. The covenant merely represents the landlord's assurance of title and power to grant a lease and insures the tenant's sole and exclusive use of the premises.

On the other hand, regardless of any provision in the lease, there is an implied statutory warranty of habitability in every lease. The statute mandates that a landlord provide a tenant with a premises that is fit for residential use and that the tenant will not be subject to conditions that are dangerous, hazardous, or detrimental to life, health or safety. Depending on the level of noise, you could have a claim that the landlord's conduct breaches this warranty. A provision in the lease entitling the landlord to perform construction cannot waive this statutory obligation. Thus, regardless of any construction provision, if the landlord's conduct rises to the level to constitute a breach of this warranty, you may have a claim for an abatement.

Why not just tell the landlord that you are unhappy with the noise and are paying too much for a noisy apartment and that if he isn't willing to work something out you are going to just leave the building? Assume he has one month of security from you, so thats all you lose by moving. Sure, he could file suit against you, but from everything I hear about this stuff, its unlikely to happen. Plus, aren't courts in NYC very tenant-friendly?

"Why not just tell the landlord that you are unhappy with the noise and are paying too much for a noisy apartment and that if he isn't willing to work something out you are going to just leave the building? Assume he has one month of security from you, so thats all you lose by moving. Sure, he could file suit against you, but from everything I hear about this stuff, its unlikely to happen. Plus, aren't courts in NYC very tenant-friendly?"

The amount of unsound legal advice spewed on this board is quite scary. Not only could you lose your security, depending on the language of your lease, you may also be liable for the entire rent due and owing for the remainder of the term. Assuming that the landlord will not go after you is quite naive. In my experience, there is a good chance that could happen and you could end up with a money judgment against you personally -- including the landlord's attorneys' fees and costs incurred in suing you and getting a new tenant. Not something that will help your credit or help you secure your next apartment.

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your input. I would like to update you on the situation and seek further advice.

My work trip that started around when I posted my original question got extended and the building manager was not responding to my e-mails. I did not feel comfortable leaving things in the air while I was away and did not want to find a lawsuit waiting for me when I got back, so I had my bank mail the landlord a check for most of the amount of the rent I had been billed (and more than I felt I owed under the circumstances). I sent the property manager an e-mail explaining what I had done. I also had a payment of this month's rent mailed by my bank this month subsequently. Because they were bank checks, the amounts have been debited from my account and I assumed they were cashed by the landlord.

Unfortunately, the landlord is playing dirty. They had their lawyer write me a letter demanding payment (and attorneys' fees!). My account with the landlord still reflects several months' rent being owed because the landlord has not cashed the checks my bank sent. Although I do not have proof that the landlord received the payments, my bank statements reflect that the money has been debited from my account as well as the name of the payee. I need to talk to a landlord-tenant attorney about this - can anyone recommend a reasonably priced one?

After returning from my trip I located my lease. The rider contains a clause about there being no abatement for disturbances while the landlord made improvements to the building. The rider is full of boilerplate inapplicable to the building (e.g., clauses about swimming pools, garbage disposals and a roof deck, none of which my building has). I am wondering if all the garbage in the rider was intentionally placed there as a red herring to get people to overlook the clause about improvements. It would not surprise me as they having been acting in bad faith as far as I am concerned. I am sure that the landlord knew perfectly well when I signed the lease that they were planning on pushing tenants out and doing renovations on a massive scale (they just started renovating yet another apartment, this one two doors down from me). This wholesale renovation project had not started when I signed the the lease, so I could not have foreseen it. I am not a real estate lawyer, but to me even if the rider is valid I did not acquiesce to living in the middle of a construction zone for 7 months when I agreed to put up with disturbances due to building improvements.

One more thing, initially they would not let me terminate my lease without paying a 2-month penalty. I am paying above market rate for my apartment and it would be evident to a prospective tenant that there is a fair amount of construction going on on my floor. I am sure they do not want to deal with a changing of the guard until they absolutely have to.

>>I am wondering if all the garbage in the rider was intentionally placed there as a red herring to get people to overlook the clause about improvements. It would not surprise me as they having been acting in bad faith as far as I am concerned.<<

It makes no difference whether it's a one-size-fits-all lease or not. You signed it. Anyone 'overlooking' ANY clause in a lease is a numbskull. You need to go through each sentence with a louse comb before signing; if you do not, that's your problem.

Bad action? I see no evidence of that in your descriptions. If there has been any bad action it is on YOUR part for withholding rent. The landlord is not 'playing dirty' here. He is seeking monies owed him which have not been paid per your signed lease. And yes, he is within his rights to seek attorney fees incurred while trying to extract rent from a deadbeat tenant.

Sorry if this all sounds harsh, but you seriously need to wake up and think very carefully about what you're doing here. Once you get into an L&T dispute your record will be marred and you will have a very difficult time securing a new rental elsewhere. And forget ever trying to purchase a co-op -- a history of L&T disputes never sits well with boards, regardless of outcome.

I have to agree qith Squid here. Man up, pay what you owe, move out.

Dead simple.

It's an unpleasant situation, yes, but you signed the lease. Also, the rent due is not what you think is fair under the circumstances but what is actually owed under the lease. You've really created a mess here. Contact the landlord or his/her representative & see how you can make this right; maybe they'll just accept the monies in arrears? Good luck & let us know what happens but please remember that life isn't always fair & things don't always go our way but you want to fix this mess ASAP.

Squid is most correct of the posts here. Some lessons learned:
(1) DO NOT on your own EVER decide to just withhold rent. There are very few situations in which you can legally do so without breaching you lease. It is a legal question for which you require legal advice. Withholding money you promised to pay without getting legal counsel is a very poor exercise of judgment.
(2) "Warranty of habilitability and fitness," "peace and quiet enjoyment," etc. are legal terms of art that do not always mean what a non-lawyer might think. Bandying around these legal phrases by non-lawyers is dangerous since they can lead you to very wrong conclusions.
(3) A lease means what a lease says. "Extra" words do not invalidate it somehow. READ YOUR LEASE before you sign it and know what you are contracting for. If you don't understand it, fax it to your attorney to take a look at. Generally, you sign it, you own it. Period. Verbal assurances are worth nothing if they conflict with a signed lease.
(4) Leases usually have clauses that you are liable for attorney fees of the landlord if you breach the lease. That is why, before you unilaterally decide to violate the lease by not paying, you should be very certain of what you are doing. This isn't a place to just think, "oh, if the landlord disagrees and doesn't fold, I'll just pay him--can't hurt to try." WRONG. It can hurt to try.

Here, the original poster's actions may be understandable, but they reflect quite a naive, simplistic and ineffective approach to addressing the situation. Before thousands of dollars in extra fees are racked up, before credit is ruined by this mess, before insuring no other NYC landlord will ever rent to you again, get legal counsel to help you set things right again.

Everything that kylewest said, plus:
1. consider this a learning experience.
2. The construction hours are not THAT onerous. Plan your schedule accordingly, and be out of your apartment at those times. There's plenty to do in NY, at all times of year and in all weather, and at all price levels. You can get into the Met for a penny. Be there on Saturdays.

OnthMove- you asked for a good landlord/tenant lawyer- here's a couple of names:
Saul mishaan 212-944-0900
Steven Ebert 212- 290-4000 x 304 steven.ebert@ejlaw.net

I generally agree with everything posted. However, I have, on multiple occasion, witheld rent temporarily and/or permanently without official legal counsel. However, I know my way around a legal document since I work with them a lot, plus I have lawyer friends that I can bounce ideas off of. Key factors are what you think you can credibly legally claim, what you think a court would do, etc. NOT what you think is fair.

I agree with alanhart agreeing with kylewest - do not just withhold rent, that is not the same as withholding tips to your garage attendants, underpaying your housekeeper / chintzing on paid vacation time, or saving $5 by paying $75 instead of $80 for a XMas tip.