All Forum Posts by: Joe Bell

New York City

Can a tenant living in an illegal basement sue the landlord for rent that was previously paid (in New York)? From my understanding (in New York) they cannot sue/get back rent that was previously paid to the landlord, but they are not required to pay rent if they live in an illegal basement. Is this correct?

they are basement tenants which you cannot not rent in nyc.

evicting basement tenants will cost so much I'm better off trying to pay them off. and even if i am responsible i will simply tell them that from now on they are responsible for paying it, and if they don't like it they can leave, and if they don't want to make there payments that there problem they will just have no utilities due to un paid bills.

they are basement tenants. and they have not paid rent in 3 months and have many people living there who should not be. but i tried the civilized approach as you mentioned and they don't seam to care. but if the power is shut off in 2 months, due to lack of payment, then they will have to move out, and i wont get into legal trouble, i don't think, as long is i do not physically request it to be turned off?

i don't understand how i will be in legal trouble if i cannot afford to pay the utilities. the company will simply shut it off, and then they will be forced to leave.

as i understand it you can only get in legal trouble if you request that it be turned, as opposed to it being shut off do to lack of payment.

NYC. what happens if you can not afford to pay the utilities bills because basement tenants are not paying rent.

we have a 2 story house + basement. everyone has moved out except the basement tenants. can i simply tell them that it is there responsibility to pay there own utilities now? what happens if i really cannot afford to pay the utilities(on account of no rent) and utility company shuts off power? i know that i cannot shut the power off to get them out of there legally, but, if con Edison shuts off the power due to lack of payment i wont be legally in trouble, correct?

@Linda Weygant so how would that work with the 2 year $500,000 primary residence exclusion? if i where to  eventually want to sell the rental property that i would now be living in after 2 years, if i have as you say two primary residences. would that not cause a problem? would i still qualify for the exclusion on the house we moved into if i have two primary residences?

@Linda Weygant so you do not see any significant tax issues, or any things that i should be aware of, with the bottom half of my question (listed below)?  what would be the consequences of doing this, if any?

assume the following example, me and my wife move into our rental property but we allow our kids (25 and 19 years of age) to continue to live in the original home. we continue to pay all the bills on our the first house in our name while living in the rental property and also paying our bills there. would there be any issues with doing this?

what do you think about my follow up question right above this post

@Linda Weygant

my follow up question is, assuming an audit by irs where to take place, how would the irs determine, or ask you to prove, your primary residence?

assume the following example, me and my wife move into our rental property but we allow our kids (25 and 19 years of age) to continue to live in the original home. we continue to pay all the bills on our the first house in our name while living in the rental property and also paying our bills there. would there be any issues with doing this?