maximum length of lease

[smf]

When we moved into our apartment, we were set to sign a 2-year lease. However, because our lease would have ended in January, our landlord asked us to add an additional 3 months to the lease so that he could rent it in the spring (when people were more likely to be moving). So the lease is for a total of 27 months.

However, a friend who is an attorney said she thought there might be an NYC law that sets a maximum length of two years for some rental agreements. Has anyone heard of this? Or does anyone have ideas about where I could find this law? We're looking to move out, for a number of reasons, and I would love to have a legal basis for breaking the lease.

Thanks!

[Cranky Tenant]

This is one of the problems with getting legal advice from an attorney who doesn't specialize in housing issues. They often don't know any more about housing or tenants rights than the average person.

Rent Stabilization Law states that tenants have the choice of either a one or two year lease. If the apartment isn't stabilized, the lease could probably be for whatever term the tenant and Landlord agree on.

[smf]

Yeah, I wondered about that. Thanks for your help.