As you know, we had been super excited about our move back to NYC. We rented a great apartment on Riverside and 145th street and moved in on December 19th. That day, my Mom and Dad arrived on site with Sushi at 9AM to help us clean the apartment while Hairpin, Tio Julio and I, Flounder, loaded the U-Haul from 6:30AM to about 10am. Hairpin and I arrived at the apt around 11:30AM and were greeted by Junior (friend's cousin) and Ralph (friend). We began unloading, Hairpin, Ralph and I outside and Junior and my Dad inside. At around 1:30PM I needed a pee-break and went inside. The entire hallway reeked of Marijuana. My folks did not realize it was Marijuana; my dad thought it was someone cooking with Vinegar (not very good Colombians huh?). They both had headaches and little Sushi was agitated. We continued to unload as quickly as possible and finished by 3PM. By then I had a headache and was nauseous from the Marijuana fumes. We attempted to air out the apartment as we unpacked some kitchen boxes. Aloysius joined us after school and was so excited to be there. We had some dinner but still, no matter how much we aired out the apartment, it still reeked. It seemed to be coming from our next door neighbor and some how getting stuck in our corner apartment. We called the leasing agent and explained that we could not stay there. The leasing agent, Adam, denied ever smelling Marijuana and instructed us to call the police if it was so bad. We did. They directed us to Landlord/Tenant court downtown and said they could not dispatch anyone for this circumstance. By 7PM we decided to get the kids out of there. Hairpin and my Dad drove them to Rockland and my Mom and I stayed at the apt. I pretty much cried my eyes out. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. The police. A young cocky Latino man and a woman. They pretty much said they did not smell anything in the apartment (which we had been airing out) and the woman stated that she did not understand why I sent the kids to my folks. She stated that Marijuana smell would not harm them. I had no energy left at this point. I thanked them and continued to cry. Hairpin came back for Mom and I, and once again we were headed to Rockland.
Dadi set up an air mattress for us and Sushi's travel crib; Aloysius' bed was still there. Since I used our clothes to pack our stuff, we only had a few pieces of clothing with us. Luckily, since I unpacked some kitchen stuff earlier, we had plenty of kids clothes:)
The Abuelos had a road trip planned to Florida this vacation. We had sold our car on Thursday 12-18-14 since we were moving the next day and did not need it in the city. Yikes! Luckily my Mom's friend was also driving to Florida for the vacation and offered to take them. We begged my parents to go and get a good break. So it was.
Saturday and Sunday we e-mailed the leasing agent and told him we could not live in a place that was uninhabitable. We got no response from him. Monday we went downtown to the Landlord/Tenant court and they advised us to send a certified letter to Managing Company stating that the Lease was in breech of the Warranty of Habitability and that we wanted to terminate it. They said that we could litigate this, but it would be a lengthy process. Time, we did not have. This had to be resolved and we needed a new apartment by January 2nd.
Took Sushi to a park after Landlord/Tenant court visit.
He was 18 months Sunday!!!
Tuesday we awaited a response to the letter from the leasing agent. No response. We looked at some apartments and found one we liked.
Christmas Eve day was a cold grey rainy day. The boys, Hairpin and I went to see a lawyer I found on-line. What a waste of time. He could barely sputter out words. Since his office was close to the leasing company, we decided to show up there and wait until we spoke to a higher official than our leasing agent. We did. After a good discussion, we walked away with the idea that they would break our lease on Monday once their lawyer returned from vacation. In addition, they gave us a list of apartments that they had available upon our request.
We went to see an apartment we had already seen which was on the small side but in a good location. We told them we wanted it. We got a $50 per month rent decrease, storage for half-price, and 3 months of free storage. So we agreed to it.
With some peace of mind we decided to enjoy the rest of vacation as best we could!
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