: I rent an appartment in huntington, NY.  The home is about 10 to 15 years old.
: Saturday afternoon I returned to my appartment after spending friday night at my fiance's house.
: When I walked in I noticed that ther was a layer of black soot all over everything in the appartment.  The ceilings and walls were stained black as well as everything else I own.  The black soot entered the appartment though the radiators.  You can see the marks on the wall where the smoke came from.
: My father is a contractor and does home improvement for a living.  He told me it was from the chimney backing up and flowing into my appartment.  I spoke to my landlord that lives downstairs from me and he did not want to take responsibility for it.  He looked at the soot and said it was from dust in the radiator that collected and that I would have too clean it up.  It can not be dust because it came out of all four radiators at the same time.  What are my rights as a tenant in this matter?  What can I do to make my landlord take responsibility for the damage?