Subletting Angst

Rumi and I are subletting from a girl (we'll call her Soap Star) who we recently found out is overcharging us almost $500 per month (it tells you something about how exorbitant New York rents are that we're paying that much extra but still feel like we have a good deal, relatively speaking). Actually, we found out some time ago, but at the time I had too many other fish to fry, including leaving my job from hell, and I was really looking forward to the summer and making use of our roof deck. Soap Star no longer lives in the city. She's on her way to California to make it in Hollywood. Meanwhile, she's been taking acting classes on my dime. At least my money has been supporting the arts.

Mostly I push this situation out of my mind, but every few months, the living situations ends up incensing me. This girl blatantly lied to my face when I first agreed to move in. She told me the rent was more than it actually was, and then didn't even bother to do the math correctly. I figured out she was lying quickly because what she was charging me and Rumi didn't add up to what she had told me the rent was. I gave her a security deposit and last month's rent and now I know that this girl can not be trusted to be honorable with my money. I really hate that. It pushes all kinds of buttons related to money, control, and security.

I can't stand liars. I also can't stand greedy, untrustworthy people who think they are pulling one over on you. People who just take and take and have no sense of justice or fairness. It enrages me, now and then, to think that she thinks that she is pulling one over on Rumi and me. Really, we're pulling one over on her because she doesn't know that we know exactly how much she's overcharging us. Our plan is to enjoy the summer and then take it from there.

The whole thing is a New York sublet mess. She's not on the lease (a fact she lied about and which we recently discovered), so she has no rights under the lease. However, neither do we because we aren't on any legit lease either; although in the beginning we had thought we were. To complicate things, a new management company has bought the building and they seem to be way more on top of their game than the old one. Suddenly, mail boxes have been stripped of their names, we think because the management company doesn't recognize so many of the names of people living in their building.

I'm in a precarious situation and it annoys me. It annoys me because I want to make my life less stressful, yet this living situation has been a constant thorn every month when I have to deal with this girl that I'm subletting from. It annoys me that I entered into this situation without ascertaining that it was on the up and up. It annoys me that she has lots of my money and I might not be able to get it back without representing myself in small claims court. It annoys me that I'm a lawyer and yet I don't know the answers to all of this (housing law is not my forte). It also annoys me that I think I have to wait it out and let the status quo continue because New York rents are such that there's a real concern that if I went to the landlord he would up my rent to above what I'm paying Soap Star.

I'm tense, aggravated, and annoyed because I've been emailing with Soap Star for the last few days. I want a stable living situation. I want her gone. I do not want to have to deal with some greedy, lying, little prima donna every four weeks.