A $600/month rent? In NYC....I don’t hardly see how the LL is ‘bum’....any way you look at it ‘value’ is ‘value’ and a $600/month rent has to assume some inconveniences. Automatically assuming that a landlord is assuming the tenant cannot fight it legally is absurd - she did, and with the legal mentality in NYC, she won.
Rent control is socialism, just like progressive income taxes. If you can’t see that, then I don’t know what to tell you. I sure as hell wouldn’t rent anything I own to you.
As to renting to me, it wouldn't matter who your tenant was, any non corrupt judge like the one in this story is going to have you not receiving rent if you pull the stupid crap the landlord in this story pulled.
You personally are expressing your basic distaste for the very concept of reciprocal responsibility. It doesn't work that way.
I suggest a different policy than the one you espouse: If you don't intend to fulfill your end of an agreement, don't enter into one. Clearly that would be an entirely new concept for you, but you should try it anyway.
What does this have to do with rent control?
That being said, The law states that the owner/landlord is required to do repair on the building. A building without gas and with structural damage is the responsibility of the landlord to repair. If he is unable to repair the damage himself, he should hire someone to repair building for his tenants.
She not only had the right to with hold the rent, she had a responsibility to do so in order to force the landlord to remedy the situation. If the landlord can afford a lawyer for several years of litigation, he could afford to repair the building and maintain adequate facilities for the rent he agreed upon.
I say a deal is a deal and this landlord should be expected to live up to the deal.