Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in New York

Spiteful, possibly criminal act by my landlord.

My wife, son, and I rent an apartment in a two family private house. I am behind on the rent. As an act of spite my landlady's son called child services, and based on whatever he said, my son was removed from my home. This individual actually said beforehand that he would do whatever he could to make life difficult for me. He said he would call children's services, animal control, and ''will call the cops on you'' just to make trouble.

Lying to the ACS and having my son removed seems like it should be a criminal act. I cannot sleep not knowing where he is and how he is. ACS took my son with only the clothes he was wearing. Naturally we will get our son back, but the horror of worrying about our son for the past two days (at this moment the ACS is under a spotlight and this spiteful man knew they would not take chances with a well worded complaint), not to mention my lost time at work to appear on our behalf, and there's the awful feeling of being at the mercy of a possibly inexperienced ACS field person who fears for his job. Has he committed a crime? Once this horrible episode is done and my family is together again I know I will be anxious to use any legal means possible to respond to this awful thing this man did to my fmmily.


Asked on 2/28/06, 1:19 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Loeb Law Office of Stephen R. Loeb

Re: Spiteful, possibly criminal act by my landlord.

If the complaint was false what your landlord did was a criminal act. If you are certain the ACS report was from your landlord, and the information was false you can file a complaint against your landlord.

Should you like to discuss this or any other legal matter, you can e-mail me for more information about low cost face-to-face, on-line, or a telephone consultation with a lawyer in our office.

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Answered on 2/28/06, 1:36 pm


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