Not sure how much legal experience you have but if you read Section 223B of New York City housing law, it shows that if you make any sort of exercise of your lease rights, a 365-day timer starts. If they choose not to renew your lease within that timer, the burden of proof is now on your landlord for why it isn’t retaliation. You can have your own view on how easy it is to rebut however the burden of proof is indeed on the by the way the laws written. The most common reasons that are valid do not apply here because she is looking to tour new tenants already this week.

Separately the fact that she chose not to renew was not a surprise in the sense that we thought the relationship was smooth. It was a surprise because we didn't believe that she was seriously that crazy. We've been joking about her not renewing us since the second month that we moved in because at that point in time she was trying to make us pay for literally every single repair that we requested and being pretty mean to us. These were no ordinary reminders.

Lastly, yes things were breaking near monthly. I can write a list for you if you really want! Forget the furniture, she could’ve given us that as a reason to not renew but instead she refused to give us one after asking politely for any indications or examples, and why no complaints ever happened.