Legal Question in Real Estate Law in New York

I would like to ask about my right on handing over my lease.

I have management that couldnt stop my neighbors from smoking. It has been 5 months of living in ashtray and I have given up and I am moving out.

Management wont let me break the lease unless I pay 3 months of fee or find new tenant. After 3 weeks I finally got someone interested. But now management told me all of my 4 security deposits I had to pay to move in will be transferred to new tenant's name and it's up to me to get huge check from them with these deposits upon signing. They cannot afford and dont want to pay so much upfront. This makes it extremely hard for me to find replacement and I am facing loosing the money.

I wanted to ask if its legal for building transferring all 4 deposits instead of one.

Thank you for the answer.


Asked on 2/02/17, 11:39 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Richard Bryan Richard Bryan Attorney PC

You need to get a lawyer to write a strongly worded letter to the management company and they will back down. Management is required by law to ensure the apartment is 'habitable' and as you describe the smoking situation, I would claim that your apartment is not habitable and the landlord is in violation of the housing law. If you're up to doing the work yourself, you might want to file a claim against the landlord in housing court. That will get their attention quickly as they'll have to get their own lawyers involved and they don't want to do that, for sure. Even if you don't state your claim in proper legal form, you'll be able to file your papers and have the landlord served and that will make them wake up and pay attention to your situation and they will be much more accommodating in short order.

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Answered on 3/01/17, 9:31 am


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