[NY] When does a landlord’s conduct toward a tenant who is withholding rent for repairs become harassment?

Hi

Syracuse, NY

Not yet, I've been working off and on with legal aid, but i have questions I need real answers to and they cant get back to me until Tuesday next week.

No.

Yes.

Okay, so on March thirtieth I sent a notice to my landlord saying that I was going to be withholding rent until the repairers that are needed to the unit that I'm in have been made, and that includes lead remediation, my landlord is [name redacted] here in Syracuse. He's failed to provide any form of acceptable temporary housing for us in order for us to leave the unit so that they can do that work. And now, over the last three days, his a property manager has been messaging me. And I feel like this is bordering on harassment, intimidation and retaliation. But I need to make sure that I'm not just exaggerating things. And I'm not just imagining things that this is something that is legitimately concernable.

So on march thirtieth, we had a gas emergency. I immediately called the gas company and said, hey, we have a gas leak. The pipe from the stove is hissing, and then when I got off the phone with them, I messaged the property manager and let him know what was going on his response was. "I'll be there in the morning, what's going on with rent" word for word. I didn't have any contact with him again. Until april 11th when after verbal conversation about him saying that we are responsible to find ourselves housing. I sent him two screenshots of two Airbnbs that would fit our family. We have a family of five with three children. I received no response to that. Then on the 12th he blocked me into the driveway, like he parked behind me in the driveway so that I would have to talk to him in order to get him to move his car. I recorded that interaction, because I knew something wasn't okay. Then, may nineteenth I messaged, because he had blocked me and again and it was the middle of the night and I needed to go get my husband from work. I messaged him and asked him to not block us into the driveway again. He responded the following morning with "you guys said you were moving out today. So I don't see the point in this message" he's referencing us moving out into our house, and we are currently waiting on a closed date. We don't have one yet. And we told them this, so there's been no official anything in writing that says with that we were going to be out on may twentieth. He then has proceeded to message very late into the night saying that we're not tenants, we don't have rights, we cant park in the driveway anymore, were being difficult, we just don't want to pay. Then last night at after 10 PM he said, well, we're gonna be there in the morning, and you have to let us in. Because we need to get in there to do repairs. And I said, okay, you need to provide me with repair scope. Who's coming in? And how long they're gonna be here for and what they're working on. He said, stop texting me with all that red tape.We're gonna do things how we've always done them.

I've offered several windows of time throughout the week. That we are available for them to come in and do repairs? But I've also said that I need that information. Prior to confirming any kind of maintenance appointment, and he has refused every single time that I have texted that he has refused to give that information. And he keeps trying to force in person contact, tried to avoid written communication even though I've specifically requested written communication only several tines, upwards of 13 times in the text message thread.

So my question is, I need to know if the responses that I've been giving him are the ones that I need to be giving him because I don't want to appear as excessively difficult or unwilling to allow repairs, but there's a lot going on here. There's lead paint in the apartment. He doesn't have a renters registry for this apartment. And he hasn't for quite a few years, code has never been in here to inspect this apartment. The entire six and a half years that we've lived here, we've been using the parking space for the last 6 and a 1 years. And now the property manager is parking in that space and locking the mutual access door into the house at night, and we've never been provided a key for that.

Every time I respond and ask for things to be put in writing and for any kind of maintenance to be scheduled with a reasonable amount of time inside the timeframes that I've given them that were available, which are a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday  option between certain hours because that's when my husband is home.

We have cockroaches in our kitchen. There's leaking sinks. The bathtub is leaking. The bathtub drain is rusted. There's multiple holes in the walls in these apartments where the walls have just kind of crumbled away.Because the house is so old that have never been fixed. He keeps claiming that i'm denying them access.But my response is this:

"Good morning. We are not refusing necessary repairs or lawful access. To schedule access, please provide in writing: the specific repair scope, who will be entering, the expected time needed, and the proposed time window. Once that information is provided, we can confirm a scheduled appointment during one of these availability windows: Monday: 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM Tuesday: 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM Thursday: 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM Friday: 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM Saturday/Sunday: can be discussed for specific availability. These windows are not open-ended permission to enter; access still needs to be scheduled and confirmed in writing beforehand. Thank you. "

Is that ridiculous? Or difficult?

So tonight, he parked in our parking space, forcing us to park on the street, which we have not had to do in six and a half years, he locked the outer mutual access door which we have never had a key to. He waited until we left. We only left for about twenty minutes and came back, and in that time he had come out, moved his car from the road, put it in the parking space and locked the outer door from the inside. Is that illegal?

Okay, this is ask a lawyer. So I am asking as a person. I'm seeking legal advice.. what do I do now?