B9 Two-Family Residential currently renting 3 units. Legal?

I’m hoping someone might be able to chime in on a potential legal issue I may be faced with. In short, I need to get out of my lease which still has 7 months left. I proposed what I think is a pretty fair offer to my landlord. I’m giving 3.5 months notice of this and she can keep the security deposit + an additional month’s rent. I think it’s reasonable and even allows more time for her to find a tenant if we went until the end of the lease. However, she wants 3 months up front and to keep the security deposit (nearly 10k).

My apartment is on the first floor of a brownstone and there are two more units above. When I check property Shark the building is a B9 miscellaneous. If I understand it correctly, there can only be two rental units on this property. She keeps the electricity bill in her name and emails me a copy and on the lease it actually states that my apartment is the 3rd floor.

I hope we can resolve this ourselves and I do believe I’m taking a fair ap proach, but if she wants to sue me is the lease technically void because of the building class and how she’s using the property? Any thoughts much appreciated.

j.e.c2769

in Dept. of Buildings (DOB) 7 years and 6 months ago

1

Please log in, in order to post replies!

1 replies

Newest Oldest

resident2 | 7 years and 6 months ago

string(1) "1"
object(WP_User)#4931 (8) {
  ["data"]=>
  object(stdClass)#4912 (12) {
    ["ID"]=>
    string(6) "181002"
    ["user_login"]=>
    string(9) "resident2"
    ["user_pass"]=>
    string(34) "$P$BYKCrEpDU34.3RJghRPk8/Xp1XpCve/"
    ["user_nicename"]=>
    string(9) "resident2"
    ["user_email"]=>
    string(21) "Jamanda1255@Yahoo.com"
    ["user_url"]=>
    string(0) ""
    ["user_registered"]=>
    string(19) "2017-08-10 14:07:33"
    ["user_activation_key"]=>
    string(0) ""
    ["user_status"]=>
    string(1) "0"
    ["display_name"]=>
    string(9) "resident2"
    ["spam"]=>
    string(1) "0"
    ["deleted"]=>
    string(1) "0"
  }
  ["ID"]=>
  int(181002)
  ["caps"]=>
  array(1) {
    ["bbp_participant"]=>
    bool(true)
  }
  ["cap_key"]=>
  string(15) "wp_capabilities"
  ["roles"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(15) "bbp_participant"
  }
  ["allcaps"]=>
  array(1) {
    ["bbp_participant"]=>
    bool(true)
  }
  ["filter"]=>
  NULL
  ["site_id":"WP_User":private]=>
  int(1)
}

You offered 3.5 months notice + the landlord keeps the security + you pay an extra months rent for the trouble? So you are talking about a dispute of only 1.5 months rent on the whole balance of the lease? that is all that is being argued about? …… If this is the case, your landlord is an idiot or is there something else that is missing in this story?
Forget about the possible illegal occupancy at this point because to force that issue will take time, stress and aggravation and all you want to do is live there for few more months and get out… so do not stress that point at this stage.
Your landlord cannot collect rent on the same apartment twice; which is what will happen if you are paying 3 months and leaving the security deposit etc.
I would stay put; six weeks before you want to leave give one months notice or an offer/ request to sublet your apartment for the balance of the lease. The landlord cannot hold you to the lease, and if they deny your request to sublet, they have to let you out of the lease. Most Landlords will let you out of the lease, because they w ant control of who lives in the building.
But as to the B9 status, I have seen the class of the building and the certificate of occupancy being out of wack. The legal use is what the DOB has it as; the certificate of occupancy. Why if you live on the ground floor you signed a lease that says the 3rd floor?? Only you can say… you should always read the lease before you sign it. Maybe the landlord did not change all the information in their standard lease, from printing out a prior one for a past tenant.