Roommate Refusing To Allow Anyone To Rent Other Rooms

Picking landlord tenant housing even if it doesn’t totally apply.

Location: New York City (Brooklyn)

My 3 roommates and I decided to rent out our 4th bedroom to someone we’ll call M. M was added to our lease and moved in in March.

M has been a problem since she moved in. A lot of the issues were interpersonal (she’s extremely annoying) but there were some legitimate issues including her smoking indoors, ashing on the wood floors, her unneutered pets urinating and vomiting all over our belongings, regularly destroying our belongings, underage drinking in the apartment, using our things, etc.

At the time we kind of just tried to ignore it because talking to her about it or asking to at least get her pets neutered was fruitless.

In May, we collectively asked M to not re-sign the lease renewal that was coming up in October and she threw a legitimate temper tantrum (kicking and screaming and crying included). We tried to be nice about it but basically told her it wasn’t working and even though she technically has a right to sign the renewal, we would really really prefer she didn’t. She threatened to sue us for violating her disability rights (she does not have a disability—she had minor elective surgery in July and has fully recovered) and said she would rather die than leave the apartment.

Since then, we’ve stopped speaking to her because every time we do she threatens us with legal action. She currently has 3 other active lawsuits that we know about.

In July, one of my roommates, A, couldn’t take it anymore and moved out, and sublet her room to a friend for the remainder of the lease. My other roommate, B, and I had planned to sign the lease renewal regardless of whether or not M stayed because we would just try to ignore her as much as possible for the next year. Unfortunately, M decided to fraudulently file an order of protection against B claiming B was “almost” violent towards her (she wasn’t, I witnessed the event she is referring to), so B has had to move out. M has also been threatening to sue me for domestic violence (?) and also is attempting to contact my employer to get me fired from my job.

Now we have 2 empty bedrooms, and M is insisting she doesn’t consent to renting either of those rooms out. I do not want to pay half of the rent. The building owner/landlord is refusing to get involved. Do I have any recourse here?

Additionally, building management has requested that we handle the return of the security deposits amongst ourselves. M is now refusing to return B and A’s deposits due to “damages” (there are no damages beyond normal wear and tear). Does she have any legal standing to withhold their deposits?