AFTER TERMINATION, CAN’T HOLD TENANT’S RENT CHECKS
After the New York County Supreme Court dismissed their ejectment action -- which had been commenced against a rent-stabilized tenant whose occupancy rights had purportedly been terminated (pursuant to a Golub notice) – an appeal ensued.
On its review of the record, the Appellate Division, First Department, noted that while the tenancy was terminated on January 31, 2022, the complaint wasn’t served until April 22, 2022, and in the intervening period, the owner received and retained rent checks for the months of February, March and April.
Interestingly, the checks were not returned to the tenant until June 3, 2022. (And apparently the landlord could not explain why it took so long for it to do so.)
While the mere retention of a rent check may not, in and of itself, vitiate a predicate notice, the AD1 noted that the law requires that a property owner “promptly” return the item(s) in question or refund the monies and explain any inadvertence (if cashed). Absent compliance with those steps, a termination notice’s legal effectiveness will be negated. And the latter is what occurred here.
The AD1 was of the view “the [motion] court properly determined that the receipt and retention of multiple rent checks for several months, without explanation, vitiated the predicate notices,” and that warranted dismissal of the ejection action.
Ironically, the court ejected that ejectment case ….
# # #
DECISION