Superintendent negligence has caused health problems, what can I do? (NYC)
Location: New York City
Hello! Just some important context. I am a student who moved to NYC a few years ago for school. I go to a relatively expensive school and pay for most of it myself. Ever since I moved, I noticed I was very prone to getting sick, which hadn’t previously been an issue. I had been living in the school provided dorms and hadn’t had many health issues outside of when I contracted illnesses. This past year is the first time I’ve lived in an NYC apartment, and this is when things began to become much more serious.
Over the past year my roommates and I have faced many issues with this apartment. Some of which include rats, mites, roaches, sewage leaks, water leaks, mold, the dishwasher and washing machine not having hot water, the sink not draining, and electrical components shorting. We would repeatedly contact our super and the company that owns the building to obtain the necessary repairs and extermination, but with little to no avail. We even tried contacting 311, HPD, and NYCHA but never received any outside assistance. We have extensively documented these problems and have pictures and videos of everything. “Coincidentally” this year I have also had much more serious health issues. I would have trouble breathing, sinus and respiratory issues, waking up with migraines, lightheadedness and dizziness, low grade fevers, experiencing intense bouts of nausea, and I even ended up randomly passing out a few months ago. I underwent extensive testing and, what do you know, I’m severely allergic to many of the things that our super neglected to fix. This may potentially be paired with some sort of autoimmune disease that is exacerbating the problem.
It took me many months to find this out because every doctor that I went to came back with inconclusive results and everything looked “normal”. I’ve sunk a lot of money into medical expenses and as a student, that is something that I don’t have a lot of. Which brings me to the topic of school. Due to my medical situation, I’ve had to miss quite a few classes and I am currently at risk of being expelled due to the attendance policy. Again, I pay for most of school myself and I am devastated that my education is at risk over something I cannot control.
I have been told by many people that I should seriously consider suing the super/building management, but I’m not sure entirely how to go about that. The super, landlord, and company have been unresponsive for a while now. But the problems still aren’t fixed, and I have to live in the building for another month in these conditions. I would love to know if it’s possible to recoup some of the money from our lease, or if a lawsuit outside of housing is a better route due to the health issues. Any and all feedback is valuable to me and I’m happy to answer any questions. Thanks in advance for the help!