Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in New York

Landlord & tenants

I signed a 1 yr lease for my apartment and recently got laid off. Unemployment is only half of what my income was and now my apartment is too expensive for me to stay here. What are my options re:getting at least part of my security deposit back as I had to pay double because of bad credit.


Asked on 2/25/09, 7:46 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Michael Markowitz Michael A. Markowitz, PC

Re: Landlord & tenants

The first thing you can do is talk to your landlord and see if you can work out a new payment schedule.

If that does not work, and you are forced to break your lease, the landlord has the duty to mitigate damages. If possible, you should help the landlord find a replacement tenant.

The landlord would have the right to sue you for the rent owed less amounts mitigated (if any). Therefore, if the landlord could not release the apartment, you would be responsible for the entire lease. If after 3 months the landlord released the apartment for the same amount that you rented the apartment for, you would be responsible for the 3 months together with landlord's cost (if any) to re-rent the apartment.

Mike.

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Answered on 2/26/09, 9:00 am


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