Curbed Horror Stories are firsthand reader reports about terrible NYC apartment experiences past and present. This week, in honor of Renters Week, we're having a rental horror story showdown. We've posted a few tales each day this week, and will vote on the eight nominees today at noon. The winner will advance to the national round of our network-wide contest. Horror stories to tips@curbed.com, if you please.
"When I first moved to New York about 16 years ago, I lived in some dumps. The worst apartment I had was in Fort Greene on Adelphi and DeKalb. The building could have been fantastic, but the landlord would take all the rent money and go gambling in Atlantic City. Needless to say the building was falling apart.
One day I came home and found that the power in the entire property had been turned off. I called ConEd and was told that the landlord had made illegal repairs to the wiring using an unlicensed contractor, and that the power would not be turned back on until the repairs were fixed. I tried calling the landlord, but at this point she was totally absentee and would not respond to any correspondence anyone in the building sent. I ended up buying a huge Maglight flashlight, and living without power for a month.
After not paying rent for a while (I would say three or four months), and living in a building that was disintegrating day by day, I got a knock on the door. It turned out that the landlord had decided to send thugs to collect rent, even though at this point the building was almost uninhabitable. I refused to pay and ended up moving out about two months later. I still to this day wish I would have stayed because even with all the problems I absolutely loved the apartment."
· Curbed Horror Stories archive [Curbed]
· Renters Week 2011 coverage [Curbed]
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