My landlord has issued a notice of non-renewal, saying he needs my apartment for his son. I have been here 20+ years. This is the second time he has tried to evict me on the owner-occupancy rule; the first time he failed on a technicality. He himself occupies two apartments in the building for residence. He uses two others as well: one for his office; the other for his (only) son, the one he says he needs my apartment for. He has listed a different address for the current residence of his son. My landlord also has a home on LI, and is not in my building for several months of each year. Do I have a chance to fight this in court?
You always have a chance. The question is how good a chance. On the surface, I'd give the odds on the LL.
This came up recently. I looked up the law on LL personal use takeovers. There is no limit on the number of units an owner can take. However, if there are multiple owners, only one of them can take the units for their own use. If the owner is a corporation, no units can be taken.
A good lawyer might be able to fight this to a stalemate (which sounds like what happened to you the first time), but it wouldn't be cheap or easy.