When my brother moved to Manhattan for his dream job, he first rented an apartment, looking to buy a co-op down the road. The owner of his high-rise apartment complex was a remote corporation. When my brother complained about no-heat, air conditioner broken or no hot water, the owners could care less.
So after a letter campaign, he began to withhold rent, placing it into a trust account. Then when my brother showed up for landlord tenant court, the owners will pull it off calendar, making my brother loose a day's pay from work.
So you have to fight fire with fire. My brother organized a rent strike, listing all grievances, making all tenants open up the proper trust account and write the owners about fix something within a reasonable time frame or we will stop paying rent.
Out of the 250 apartments in the building, 220 withheld rent for over 4 months.
Then the owners could no longer play, take the case off calendar. The tenants now had a lawyer representing them and didn't have to show up for court because the owners were playing games.
The owners were forced into a settlement.
1) Fix all broken things.
2) Forgive all back rent.
3) Have units inspected and if things were good, rent would start.
The owners lost over 1 million dollars because their REMOTE operations didn't account for repairs.
--47.156.xx.xx