Discrimination: To many children

[Nyc3kids]

What is the name of your state? New York

My wife and I live in a two family home in Queens, New York for over 4 years. We only had signed one year leases for the first two years and then went month to month. Our landlord recently requested to increase our rent approximately 33% and give us a one-year notice to “move out” because we recently had our third child and she claims the two bedroom 900sqft apartment is to small for a family of 5pp. Note my three children ages are 4yrs, 3yrs, and 2 weeks old.

After I mentioned it was discrimination she changed her story and stated she wanted the apartment for her self because we are on the first floor and she is on the second floor and she is getting too old to climb up the stairs. Note, she only live her 6 months out of the year.

I then mentioned there is an illegal basement apartment below, which she rents out, and a bunch of apartment and property issues that should be addressed for such a larger increase, but should didn’t budge on rent increase or repairs.

I counter offered with a 5% increase but she immediately declined and said I needed to move out within three months and that she would contact a lawyer to issue me an official evection letter asap.

Please let me know what my options are.

Is this actually discrimination?

Should I contact a lawyer before I receive an official evection notice and sue for discrimination?

Should I call the Department of buildings and fire department regarding the Illegal basement apartment?

What is the best and wires case scenario if we go to court for eviction?

How long is the eviction process?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

 

[Taxing Matters]

Discrimination simply means making a decision about someone based on some particular criteria, whatever that is. Thus, most decisions we make in life about how we treat others involves discrimination. Most discrimination is legal. It is only illegal if the criteria used to make the decision is one that the law prohibits. For example, if the landlord decided to raise your rent because the landlord heard you were a New England Patriots fan and he was a NY Jets fan that would be legal (assuming no rent control law is violated) since the law does not prohibit discrimination based on what pro football team you support. So the question here is whether any law makes it illegal for the landlord to discriminate based on the number of children or occupants you have in the leased premises.

The federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits landlords from discriminating based on family status. In other words, a landlord cannot refuse to lease to someone simply because the person has kids. Your landlord, however, has not discriminated against you because you have kids, but rather because of the number of people occupying the premises. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a memo back in 1991 called the Keating memo that lays out what occupancy restrictions are presumed to be valid, though the presumption can be rebutted. Under that memo, the standard is that generally landlords may limit occupancy to 2 people per bedroom, though that limit might not be reasonable in some circumstances. Factors to consider include the overall size of unit, the size of the bedroom(s), the ages of any children living in the unit, what state and local zoning and building code ordinances say, etc. Here you have a 900 square foot unit, so I'll guess that it has either one or two bedrooms. You now have 5 people living in the unit, which would exceed the two people per bedroom test set in the HUD memo. One of those is a newborn, so one could argue that, at least for some period (some months or perhaps a year or two) that the new child does not make the home too crowded yet. That might buy you some time, but at some point the kid will be big enough having 5 people in a 900 square foot unit with at best 2 bedrooms isn't going to cut it. If you want to avoid eviction or the rent increase by asserting that the landlord is violating the FHA or NY housing law I suggest you consult an attorney who handles FHA issues for tenants for advice.

But as you are month to month right now anyway the landlord can get you out within a fairly short period of time anyway if you don't agree to the rent increase by asserting that the reason for doing it something other than occupancy limits.

 

[justalayman]

As to the amount of increase; unless there is a rent control ordinance or rent stabilization ordinance that applies that would limit how much the landlord can increase the rent, he is free to charge whatever he wishes to charge. If you aren’t happy paying what is demanded, you have the right to move.

 

[STEPHAN]

If you are month to month the landlord does not have to have a reason why he increases the rent or gives you notice to move out. You decided to not have a longer contract that would have given you protection.

 

[HighwayMan]

I then mentioned there is an illegal basement apartment below, which she rents out...

How do you know it's an illegal apartment?

Even if it is, you can feel free to report it but that will not have any effect on your own situation.

 

[Eekamouse]

How do you know it's an illegal apartment?

Even if it is, you can feel free to report it but that will not have any effect on your own situation.

Yeah but there's always that whole vindictive, petty revenge thing. SMH

 

[DeenaCA]

Here is a link to the Keating memo referenced in post #2.

 

[HRZ]

More homework required...The drift is LL sought to discriminate based on family size...but that's beyond my understanding of Byzantine NYC housing regulation. AS to many regulations a two unit one of which is owner occupied is exempt from many NYC rules ..but in this example the presence of a. 3 d unit ( highly likely it is illegal ) makes it 3 thus not exempt! yes there are some occupancy limits per bedroom, not no by size , in NYC ...but that's beyond my homework skills