Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in New York

Re: landlord/tennant lease broken?

You have multiple grounds to sue your landlord for damages and perhaps to get out of your lease. Due to the variety of issues here, I will answer this question in TWO parts: this is the first part.

In summary: You may have grounds for BREAKING the EASE on the ground of "CONSTRUCTIVE EVICTION"and/or suing the landlord for monetary damages, on the following ground: providing you with utilities such as water and electricity, the landlord has violated the warranty of habitibility; a noisy, barking dog can also constitute a violation of the warranty of habitability; some of the issues also may be your landlord's breach of the warranty of quiet enjoyment; and, by entering your premises without your consent and without justification to thrust the dog on you, the landlord may have committed TRESPASS against you. You may also have grounds for suing her for INFLICTION OF EMOTIONAL DISTRESS".

Let me first suggest that you prepare a "paper trail" of certified letters to the landlord complaining of each and every detail you cite: the lack of utilities, the dog forced on you, demandng that she remedy the situation promptly. This will be helpful in a possible lawsuit against her.

Let me also suggest that you do NOT go through this alone: attempting to break a lease (Or, e.g., withhold rent), can be legally risky strategies that can backfire against a tenant, no matter how justified the tenant may be in taking these measures: These measures should ONLY be undertaken, if a all, when you have retained a lawyer in this matter.

Re: landlord/tennant lease broken?

Your landlord has provided you with a "laundry list" of grounds for a

lawsuit (as I noted in PART 1 of my answer; this is PART 2 of THREE) :

You (or your attorney) could argue that the landlord has rendered the

home so unlivable for you that you have received a "constructive eviction", the legal term for the landlord's acts of omission and commission rendering the home so unlivable, that it is AS IF she has evicted you and that you are therefore entitled to break the lease.

By entering your rented property and forcing this unwanted dog on you, the landlord has breached the implied warranty of quiet enjoyment made to you as a tenant which NYS law reads into every residential lease which grants you a right to unimpaired, undisturbed use of your rented home.

A noisy barking dog (usually some other tenant's) allowed by the landlord on the rental premises (if sufficiently noisy and sufficiently frequent) can also be a breach of the landlord's implied warranty of habitability to you as a tenant (which implied warranty is read by NYS law into every residential lease).

The landlord's non-payment of utilities such as water and electricity ALSO violate your warranty of habitability and you may be entitled to monetary damages especially since you have paid for these utilities out of your own

pocket.

In addition, the landlord cannot enter your home any time she wishes:

She is entitled to enter to inspect the premises or to make repairs but even then she should give you prior notice that she will be entering your rented home. However, your landlord's limited, restricted right of entry does not extend to entering your home whenever she pleases with the purpose of thrusting an unwanted dog on you, especially when the lease explicitly banned pets.

Re: landlord/tennant lease broken?

This is PART 3 of 3 of my answer:

In addition, the landlord cannot enter your home any time she wishes:

She is entitled to enter to inspect the premises or to make repairs but even then she should give you prior notice that she will be entering your rented home.

However, your landlord's limited, restricted right of entry does not extend to entering your home whenever she pleases with the purpose of thrusting an unwanted dog on you, especially when the lease explicitly banned pets.

By her entry into your home without your consent and without the

justification of making necessary repairs or of inspecting the premises, but, instead, merely to thrust this unwanted dog into your keeping, your landlord has given you grounds for suing her for the following additional causes of action:

She has again violated, breached, the warranty of habitability by

depriving you of your reasonable expectation of EXCLUSIVE POSSESSION of your rented home and also thereby depriving you of your reasonable expectation of PRIVACY in your rented home.

The landlord's failure to stop infestation by rodents or insects in a tenant's rented residence can also violate the warranty of habitability in New York; perhaps, being compelled to keep an unwanted dog with a proven propensity to damage property on the premises can analogously be argued to be a similar violation of the warranty of habitability.

She has committed a TRESPASS into your rented home without your consent

and without justification to force this dog into your keeping, and you can sue her on this ground of TRESPASS as well.

It seems evident from the tone of your letter that you may be able to sue

her on the grounds of her INFLICTION OF EMOTIONAL DISTRESS on you and your

family, and to ask for damages on this ground as well.