landlord suing need help

[sd6515]

Hi I live on a month to month lease in ny state and moved out because of non working heat but did give 30 days notice still. The last month we were there we did not pay rent because of no heat and we weren't actually able to live there because of that but the issue is that he is now suing us saying we didn't pay rent for 11 months and I have every canceled check to prove that. I was wondering if because he is obviously lying and even after I furnished the evidence of the canceled checks to his lawyer they are still taking me to court for all the months of paid rent, is there anything I can file a counter suit for like blatantly lying about what he is suing for so that I can recover my costs for defending myself it is a lot of time money and energy on my part and he is claiming such a obvious lie I am disabled and can't afford these costs. Also is there anything else I could counter with like not paying for Dec. because of no heat or anything along the lines of harrassment for having to defend a lawsuit that holds no truth and I have solid proof of every canceled check he claims I didn't pay and that I have provided them with and they are still going through with it.
Thank you for all the help

[OHlandlord]

Of course you can countersue for the costs of any legal help you recieve. You certainly can recover your attorney costs if someone sues you without merit. I don't know why a LL would file, or his attorney would allow him to continue with, this case if you have provided proof of cancelled checks for all months you lived in the unit. This will only anger the judge for bringing a suit to his court when you have shown proof. Were all of those checks actually cashed? If so, get your copies together in case he continues to pursue this. Or get a statement from the bank about when all of these checks were cashed.

Did you pay rent for the last 30 days (your notice period)? If so, he has no cause for this action against you. If you were a month to month tenant, you can give proper notice and leave at any time.

As for recovering rent for the last month when there was no heat and you couldn't actually live in the unit: Did you give the LL a written notice to request repairs for the heating problem? Did you keep a copy? Were your things/belongings still in the unit during the last month? If you gave written notice and can prove it, you gave the LL a reasonable amount of time to fix the problem and he failed to do so, and you had no belongings in that unit during the last month, you MAY be able to ask for a refund of that month's rent. Good luck.

[sd6515]

I did not pay rent the last 30 days and understand that I most likely will be responsible for this I did move everything out before the end of the month and did give several written notices about the heat being out and even with held rent until the problem was fixed the first time then paid all back rent and the very next month it went out again so I had to move out because I have a 4 year old and could not leave him in those conditions.
I am at a loss myself as to why they are still suing for this amount because even when I called the lawyer she said they even had copies of some of the months they were suing for so I can not understand why they would do this other then hoping I wouldn't have copies of them or show up to defend myself but it really seems like there should be some kind of repercusions for filing a lawsuit filled with lies that they know are lies as they file them.

[OHlandlord]

If even the attorney has copies of your checks, I am surprised he would even represent the LL in this case. An attorney will get dressed down by the judge if he knowingly presents a case falsely. The judge won't like this at all. You might want to look at your state statutes and see if there is one against filing false or nuisance suits, or if this would fall under a case of libel according to your state laws. You might be able to countersue based on these.

So then I guess it would be in my best interest to contact a lawyer. The thing that I didn't get is that there is on month in there that could be seen as valid(the last) but I can not grasp why they would actually file with all those false ones in there. It doesn't sound like I would have much chance without a lawyer though.

[OHlandlord]

Well, you could certainly win the case against you for unpaid rent without one if you have all your receipts. But to pursue this further (for libel or other), you would probably need one. However, if this is going to be heard through small claims court, you should check with the court first. Most small claims courts don't allow lawyers to be present. If not allowed, even the lawyer that has been giving them advice to this point wouldn't be allowed.