Hi all,
I'm kind of in tricky situation and I'd like some advice/wisdom as to what I might be able to do, what my rights are

So I've moved to Brooklyn, New York (in September 08) and found a 3 bed apartment. To move in I wrote a cheque to the outgoing tenant, for 1st & last and security (2190: 730 x 3). Seemed a little odd at the time, but lesson learned now. The understanding was of course that I would recover that money when I left and the next tenant wrote me a cheque.

It was also mentioned that the person on the lease wasn't a tenant and hadn't been for a while.

When the first rent bill arrived I discovered that there was outstanding rent and a security deposit, totalling about 3000. Apparently it had been like that for a while and the landlords hadn't done anything about. Plus they had accepted rent for a while from people who weren't on the lease.

unfortunately last month my room-mates cheque bounced, (something he corrected) but it pushed the management over the edge, and today we received a thing from the "Civil court of the City of New York" with an Index number.
On the back it says

Dispossess or Eviction proceeding
Papers have been sent to you and filed in Court asking this court to evict you from your residence. You must appear in Court and file and answer to the Landlord's claim.
...
If you do not appear in court you may be evicted.

So my questions are:

1) As there's really no way I/we should pay for this back owed rent, we have to move. What kind of time frame are we looking at if we don't appear in court?

2) Because we're not on the lease do we have less rights? Could we be evicted much sooner?

2b) Can the landlord legally ask us for any of the back owed rent?

3) I probably have to say goodbye to my first, last and security right?

4) Does anyone have any general advice as to the best course of action?

We might have been able to settle with the landlord by moving out and using the incoming tenants FL&S and some of our own money to pay the back owed rent. Those tenants would then get their money back when they move out, but now it just seems they'll get evicted. So I suppose we should just get out of there and cut our losses.

Thanks very much for your help

Have you talked to your landlord about the fraud that the last tenant pulled over on you? The landlord has all of their information and is in a position to go after them for the back rent and maybe the money they scammed you out of too.
I would try to work with the landlord to go after the prior tenant if i were you, and while you're at it you should definitely sign a new rental agreement.
Best of luck,

__________________
Greg

I agree with this! You were scammed by the previous tenant. You taking F/L/S deposit from the next tenant is not allowed either since 1. you aren't the renter on the lease and 2. you do not rent the apartment, management does. Plus I *think* that would be scamming them too.

I would first try to talk to the landlord about what happened. You would be surprised how reasonable some people can be. Then I would try to track down the person you gave you check to. I guarantee your bank has a file of it and it was probably deposited into another bank account by the people who you gave the money to. Finally I would get out of that apt and not look back. It seems really shady to me...

Good luck!
Anna