u/Any-Meeting2479

Edit: appreciate the feedback below - would also love to hear from landlords!

For landlords or people who've been successful in the past:

Asking because we want to take our best shot at doing this right. For context: We (subletter) are in settlement discussions with the tenant, who had overcharged us significantly for a rent stabilized apartment in a big building, and didn't inform us about the RS status nor the landlord about the subletting. We're at a point where the tenants through their lawyer claim to have offered to do a lease handover to us but the landlord apparently refused it.

We have many paths to explore, but we want to start with appealing to the landlord's good graces and do so through communication to the management company or the landlord directly.

We have excellent credit, stable jobs, proof of regular rent payment, good recommendations from previous landlords, and proof of strong connections to the neighborhood and community (volunteering, etc.). We've also told the tenants over email that we will re-start paying rent now that the overcharge has been made up, to demonstrate compliance.

Is there any sway possible with all of this? Thanks in advance for any honest feedback from landlords or people who've successfully changed landlord minds!

Since finding out that the tenant we're subleasing from has been overcharging us by over $2000 a month on a rent-stabilized apartment (which we weren't told about), we've been trying to settle with them through lawyers. We first started optimistically and asked for almost treble damages and lawyer fees, as well as a 2-year legal sublet agreement, even though we had originally moved in because the tenant promised us 4-6 years in this space. However, as the negotiations went on, their offers back to us kept reducing downwards, especially after the landlord was approached by them and the landlord (or management company? It's hard to tell) refused to do either a lease handover OR a sublet agreement.

A new management company took over the building and they're apparently willing to do a short sublet lease, and the tenants are now asking that we sign that sublet and then leave after it's over. They are not offering a financial settlement anymore because they feel like they did their part.

Given that the tenant had the intention of bilking us of $2000+ a month for 4-6 years initially, and we were just lucky to catch on early on in our relationship with them, this feels frustrating: that they won't pay financially for trying to personally gain on an apartment that's not theirs because they know that the market otherwise is brutal, and that they have done this multiple times in the past as well (as per their own admission in earlier mediation sessions). And it seems like they'll get to keep the lease because the landlord or management company mysteriously doesn't want to take it away from them.

What should we do now? Do we end the settlement conversations and move forward with DHCR? Or housing court? We've withheld rent until now to make up for the overcharge and have agreed to start paying rent again, but without committing to the sublease.

Also, what could be the reasons for why landlords/management companies WOULDN'T hand over leases in these situations? I think they know that we've been illegally subletting (we didn't know they didn't know).