help me and my dog might be homeless

[kath6891]

I have lived in my apartment building for my entire life. three years ago i moved into my own apartment. during this entire time my landlord knew that i had a dog even though it says no dogs on my lease. on Feb 6 my unleashed large pit bull mixed dog ran out of the elevator in the direction of our apartment, at that moment my neighbor was coming out of her apartment and my dog got scared and barked and she got scared and screamed MY DOG DID NOT BITE HER OR GO ANYWHERE NEAR HER he ran to our apartment door. I thought she overreacted and didn't apoloize. the woman called the landlord and now the landlord is attempting legal action to get rid of my dog. I have retained an attorney but my question is now my landlord is claiming my dog urinates in the elevator and coming up with all these complains about my dog what are my chances of getting evicted I really don't want to move and i feel that I am not a bad tenant concerning my dog i feel that we are victims of the pit bull syndrome. I live in flushing Queens NY

 

[jmacgregor]

It is rather unfortunate what the media has done to a fine breed of dog. However, in your current situation there is a chance that either your dog or your apartment will become a sacrifice.
Regardless to the fact that your landlord was aware of you owning a dog, because it was stated in the lease that no dogs were allowed, you are pretty much in the wrong. Usually when entering a lease, the form and content of a lease are not set in stone. As an equal party to the contract, you as the tenant had the right to negotiate for the provisions you desire. If there's something specific you wanted, such as keeping a dog, you should have asked to have it included in the lease. If the landlord refuses, you should then decide how important that provision is to you and whether you should consider renting from that landlord.
In the case of your neighbor, this sounds more like defamation of character. If someone says something that may be construed to lessen your reputation, you may have cause to file a defamation suit. The damaging information must be false, able to be proven to be false, and you must have witnesses. Slander is when someone says something false about you. The damage inflicted by slander can sometimes be very detrimental. I stongly urge you to confront both your neighbor and your landlord or call a meeting between the three parties and resolve your problem as quickly and with as little conflict as possible.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

What did your attorney tell you? My guess -- it says in your lease that there is "no waiver" of the landlord's rights, which means that even if the landlord doesn't enforce the "no dogs" provision, the landlord can do so at any time and you take the risk of keeping a dog.

I think you may have difficulty keeping the pit bull. I don't think you have a nasty landlord as he/she did allow you to keep the dog there. However, now there could be some liability issue here since the landlord is now "on notice" of a condition. The landlord must act or take on the risk of you keeping your dog in the apartment.

I don't think you can be evicted since you can always claim that your landlord told you that you could keep the dog there. The remedy for this minor breach is to get rid of the dog. Regarding the urination, etc., if the landlord shows no proof of warnings to you about the dog, his/her credability will be suspect too.

Your attorney knows best but I'd be ready to make a decision -- keep the dog and move or get rid of the dog.