Can Tenant file a lawsuit against Landlord, NEW YORK STATE?
May 4th, 2011 | 
Author: In Court papers my landlord claimed that my family and myself were squatters & moved into his property illegally, prior to the court he brought the sheriffs to throw us out but they instead informed him of following proper procedures, he has turn the water off, cut the lights and a lot of other stuff, just recently he was caught looking through the window while I was getting dressed after a shower.
The judge dismissed 2 of LL cases, there’s been 3 stating I was a squatter,the landlord and his attorney cancelled the other one. But, now I have another court paper stating that I am a month to month tenant and owes him rent and he wants me evicted. I have the money orders for him but he refused it. I have found another place and will be moving out by tomorrow, I will also take the money orders to court. Can I file a lawsuit against my LL claiming that I was a squatter and now he states I’m a monthly tenant. There are people waiting to move in and they are also calling me a squatter.
I was renting without a lease with the landlord legally, paid rent until February when the landlord stopped taking the rent. I have the money orders dated for feb and mar.
estielmo, you have it all wrong.
I did move in with the LL approval, he and my husband do not agree and he wants us out.
He claimed I was a squatter as wanted the cops to kick us out.
I have all utilities turned on, I did make complaints to the code dept and the utilities was turned back on after they got involved.
I am moving on, but it was kind of difficult to find another house with a lot of kids. I have my brother and sister kids, as they are in Iraq in the war, plus my own kids and my step kids, so it took a long time to find any place, we have since bought a house and will be closing on 4/1/08, so i am out. I still have the last two months rent for him in the form of money orders dated, 2/1 and 3/1.. But on second though i may just keep it as he has my security deposit which was a total of 2 months rent combined. It will take a lot to go into all the details o i tried and made it short and now i am being ridiculed by the readers for not moving.. All I asked was can I sue him
Posted in Landlord Tenant Law
Why do you want to sue? Just move on.
Sounds like you should have moved MONTHS ago.
Sure, you can sue him. Will you win? No.
From your post, it sounds as if you were indeed living on his property without paying rent. His problem was he didn’t follow legal procedures to evict you.
However, since you have been defined as a tenant now, and have not paid your rent for a good long time, he is completely within his rights to not accept your money and to evict you.
I would think you’d want to just get out of this situation and move.
You are unclear how you came to live there so I assume you are an illegal squatter and won’t admit it.
Of course if you are not legal tenants he has the right to look through the window to see if you are still there. It’s HIS property and I would guess you refuse to answer the door to him.
So now he has agreed you are a m2m so he can nail you for back-rent. Good for him. You lived there you should pay.
How many months were you there and how many months have you paid for?
Anybody can file a lawsuit against anybody…so yes you can take your Landlord to court, just like he can take you.
A squatter is a person who lives upon the premises of someone else, without the owner’s permission. So if you moved in with someone without the landlord’s permission and you are not on the agreement, and the person whom you had taken residency with moves out, then yes you are considered a squatter. Or if you receive an eviction notice and fail to leave, then yes you are a squatter. The courts say that if you have a mailing address at this address then you are a tenant and the Landlord would then have to go through the same process to remove you.
Do you have something from the Landlord (rental agreement, receipt) acknowleding you as a tenant? Have you paid rent to him and stayed current? Did the Landlord give you an eviction notice?
Squatter or renter doesn’t really make a difference…because in NY state squatters have as much rights as tenants. If you are moving then move…
IMO…if you were going to take him to court, you should have done it when he started having things turned off… not wait until after you move out
from the way it sounds, you would loose the lawsuit against him. It sounds as if he was invoking his right to refuse your rent so that he can evict you. It would be in your best interest to show up to the court date with those money orders though. More than likely the judge will order you to pay that back rent. If you have it there with you maybe you can avoid the actual eviction going onto your credit.
No..you can not sue him. What damages have you suffered????