Warranty of Habitability: Tenant Rights & Rent Abatements Explained

[00:00:00]that lane real quick explain warrant of have  ability what's covered and how does that cuz   warrant of had ability saying it really bad sorry  um will get people into housing court and that's   probably very few times in which tenants are the  people bringing the cases so explain warrant of   Hab ability so I'd like to touch on this cuz this  is something that my unit specifically focuses on   a lot where you have tenants who are Ren striking  so the warranty of habitability is is implied in   every single lease which is basically that you  have the right to have a healthy dignified safe   home that's the premise and if the landlord fails  to provide a healthy dignified safe home free from   conditions then they have for all intents and  purposes breach the lease so legally speaking if   you breach the lease then there's no lease and  the Tenant doesn't owe rent now let's be very   clear that does not mean that you won't owe rent  rent that means that they're going to sue you in   housing court for non-payment assuming you have a  lease when they bring you into case you can raise   the defense that they did not make repairs and  that entitles you to a rent abatement hearing   where you would litigate and show the court that  these are the conditions that have existed in the   apartment for this time period to this extent and  therefore you should reduce the amount of rent   that is olded me personally recently I got a  great decision on this um Nicha V Barrett where   my client was living in deplorable conditions  in Queensbridge houses New York City Housing   Authority and egregious and we were able to get  a 100% abatement for his particular conditions   we're talking really really bad conditions  100% abatement you you only really see that   when somebody's totally dispossessed you know of  of the premises because the conditions are that   bad it's it's tough yes but that is an outlier  right likely you'll get 20% 30% so on and so   forth so that is what entitles you um to a renovat  it's implied within the warranty of habitability   if the conditions aren't repaired the thing is  that's a defense you have to wait till they sue   you I'll turn yeah now it is like remember maybe  wrong or right explaining to someone that if their   conditions were really bad what they could do is  put their put their landed on notice that they are   going to withhold rent which means Save Right  which means I'm going to and I think I believe   I've read somewhere that you're supposed to put  in escrow you can put your landlord on notice   like hey I'm no longer going to pay rent until  this gets fixed I'm with holding rent because   you violated this warranty when you fix it I will  start paying rent again and I guess in theory if   they fix it you got to even pay them to back r  or I guess that's when becomes are they going   to be abated or not abated but you can do that  up front um but then I guess eventually they'll   sue you I guess I right well there's also um HP  proceedings that's that's affirmative litigation   that um tenants can bring against their landlords  for repairs um and you know we we saw a lot of   that during covid when you know there was an  eviction moratorium a lot of legal service   agencies shifted from come on down we fix these  we shifted from you know eviction defense to um   you know bringing you know these HP and illegal  lockout proceedings because you know landlords   were getting upset that they weren't getting paid  and they weren't doing repairs they were illegally   locking people out so everything got flipped on  its head and it was uh it was a really strange   time in Housing Court well one that really goes to  show that if the court isn't being being inundated   with all these eviction cases we can actually hold  landlords accountable and I just want to put that   out there and that's what we need less evictions  more accountability on landlords and and secondly   even in the HP actions you cannot raise a breach  of warranty of habitability issue that's strictly   for repairs you're suing to get the repairs done  alternatively you can sue for harassment which   under the New York City Housing maintenance code  is broadly the repeated failure to make repairs in   order to get you out of the apartment and there's  a lot of different fact patterns that rise to that   occasion but you can get monetary compensatory  and punitive damages for that but that's not the   same as a renovat you can't ask for a renovat in  a HP action so with the warranty of habitability   you specifically have to make yourself vulnerable  and ren strike so that you can get sued to get the   rent of batement okay okay and so I actually  did this once it's was uh my first apartment   with the woman who's now my wife so we left an  apartment with like eight roommates and we moved   into this place in few Gardens when I started  at St John's and the apartment above us would   let their like tub overflow and the water would  come in through our ceiling and there would be   like brown water dripping through the ceiling  and the ceiling was all cracked and messed up   and this was also like right when Co started so  this was 20 and um I call my landlord and we're   writing them like texts and emails so like this is  all on record and but I'm also like just starting   law school so I'm in contracts the wrong n yeah  so I actually I called the legal a society cuz I   was like I need to speak to a housing laer but I  can't afford one and they explain to me like the   warranty of habitability and how I can call  311 and they'll s an inspect to my apartment   and document the violations so there'll be like a  record from the government that these conditions   exist and so we do that and I'm taking my Civ Pro  exam at home and my wife is just left to walk the   talk and the inspector knocks on the door and I'm  like this could not be in the worst [ __ ] time   cuz like I'm literally typing the exam I open the  door and there's this guy here and he's got the   hbd shirt on he's like all right what do I need  to look at like like there's a bathroom there's   the roof I mean there's the ceiling and I'm like  I got to write this exam I'll go back so and I'm   typing all this out and then he leaves and then  my wife comes back and she's like did the guy   come and I go yeah he just left and she was just  like did you show him around I go I can't talk to you do they have personal jurisdiction or not  I don't know sucks it was a but I passed and   it's over and then after it I was like yeah we  showed him around it's fine and they did issu   the violations but because of that I had written  him an email and I was like you are violating the   warranty of habitability because there's water  dripping from my ceiling and it's gross and   disgusting and also a breach excuses performance  and I know that I'm in contracts right now and a   breach on your end exuses performance on mine  so that means if you breach the warranty of   habitability I don't have to pay rent yes and  then few months later we found a new apartment   and we left and I never paid that guy nice good  how many how many months were you like this   apartment is that habitable God I want to say  like four woo yeah nice yeah so that was nice   but if you're dealing with conditions in your  apartment put the landlord on notice put it in   writing send them an email send them a text call  311 get an HPD inspector and then and withhold   and look for a new place if you can but withhold  the rent put it in a separate account or give it   to an an attorney someone you can trust yeah okay  yeah it's super important to like understand that   like you want to save the money assuming that  you have the money because there is a universe   where you're going to get sued in court the judge  issues a decision they say okay you're entitled to   a rent a batement we're going to cut the rent by  20% 30% you have the serers they're just taking   off the 20 30% you still owe the remainder so  you'll get a discount right in the form of the   abatement but you have to be prepared exactly to  pay the difference because if not they can still   evict you for the non-payment of that money that's  remaining after the abatement and that's actually   a huge practical issue still for a lot of tenants  right they still can't pay even after an abatement