Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in New York

Check the Buildings Department website for violations against the property. If the violations are "rent-impairing," you can withhold rent.

Call 311 and request the Building Department to send an inspector. He will write violations, some of which may be rent -impairing.

If the other tenants in the building have the same problem, you can do a building-wide rent strike. You and the other tenants can end up owning the building.

Or you can move out and sue to get your security deposit as well as damages for constructive eviction and breach of the warranty of habitability.