termination of lease.

[cnielsen001]

My wife and I were renting an apartment in Brooklyn, NY. The one year lease started in August of 1999. There were never any problems while we were renting. My mother died in the middle of April of 2000, and we had to move to Massachuesetts to take care of the house and her estate (I am the only child).

So when we informed our landlords that we had to terminate the lease, and they were anything but understanding. They said that they wanted an extra month's rent as well as keeping our security deposit (1 month's rent) to terminate the lease. The last thing we wanted to do at the time was argue about it. We urgently had to get back to Massachuesetts. So, we paid what they were asking for. We left April 17th and they had the apartment rented to other tennants by the first of May. They also increased the rent by four hundred dollars for the new tennants.

So, do we have any recourse? I know that it was almost a year ago. Is the statute of limitation 1 year for these things? Also, I am fairly sure that they did not put our security deposit into an interest earning bank account. We never received any tax information for interest earned for our 1999 or 2000 taxes and obviously we never saw any interest earned. Is it true that we can sue for triple damages in that type of situation?

we look forward to a response.
Thank you,
cnielsen

 

[dj1]

Well you should have came back to NY and sued them for the deposit etc...

They had NO right to keep it and not give you a full accounting of any expenses and damages,.

And they STOLE an extra month from you in rent that is ILLEGAL to get FULL rent from 2 different people for the SAME apartment!...Just think if YOU ROBBED someone youd be in JAIL....and yet this criminal Landlord is FREE AS A BIRD!

So keep all of your reciepts keep YOUR LEASE, keep all you MOVING bills uhaul etc.....IN a safe place..

You might need it someday if they sued you in court over this...or if you find out they did and its on your credit report!

And Here in NYCITY It is very understandable to break a lease on short notice if a parent is dead or dying and you have to rush home to take care of them....I have NOT heard a judge rule in favor of a landlord over that!