Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in New York
My wife and I were in good standing with our landlord at our apartment for nearly five years. My wife was accepted into graduate school on short notice so we had to terminate our lease 2 months early.
We spoke with our landlord about this, mentioning that she had already violated the terms of our lease by entering our apartment several times without giving us notice (she claimed because she thought pipes were leaking, but this was never the case and no repairs were made). She agreed to accept a pro-rated payment for the first week of August (the when we were moving out) and would return our deposit. Tough she did not know it, we were recording the conversation.
Now that we have moved across the country she wants to keep our deposit because we left our lease early.
In addition, our lease stated that electricity would be payed by the landlord, though for five years, we payed the bill.
Do we have a case here? Can we use the recording of the conversation we had where she said she would return the deposit? Since we never made a claim for electricity bills after 5 y
1 Answer from Attorneys
Recording is OK in NY (as long as one person knows, which is you). However, you would have to sue her on your oral contract in Sm Claims in her area, across the country back here in NY. If you choose to do this, you can file on-line and see if it is worth it to come back.
They usually don't allow recording devices in Sm Claims so you might want to get it put onto a tape (every Sm Claims judge is different) and use it to show her as subjorning perjury. She'll deny stating it, you will whip out the tape an offer it into evidence and the judge will see her as unbelievable.
You can let her know that in exchange for not suing for everything you can (electric), you want your security dep back
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