Submitted by :- enro
Topic :- New owners not renewing my lease -- short notice
I received a call today from my building's new owners. They told me they are renovating all the "fair market" apartments in the building and they are NOT renewing my lease which is up in 2 weeks.
They gave me until the end of January to leave. Basically 5 weeks. They took over the property about 4 weeks ago. I've lived here 3 and a half years. Never any trouble, always on time with rent.
The lady kept apologizing for the short notice. I said I'd get back to her.
Is this legal? And if it is, is there anything I can do to fight it and stay longer? It would take at least 2 or 3 months for me to find anything in the city, but this is way too short notice.
It's probably legal. As an unregulated tenant, your only protection is the lease.
Have you checked with DHCR to see if the unit was formerly regulated, and the circumstances in which it was deregulated? Many, if not most, deregulated units were not done so legally. If the building was built prior to 1974 and has 6 or more units in it, then chances are the unit was regulated. You'll need a rent history from DHCR. The Grimm decision says DHCR should look past the 4 year statute of limitations if there's evidence of fraud. It's worth looking into. And, if there is some evidence there, you can file with DHCR. That should buy you some time.
If the unit is legally deregulated, then what you want is some time as eventually they will get you out.
You can also stay past the end of the lease, forcing the LL to commence a holdover proceeding in Housing Court. But you will need to be careful how you handle that as you will want to avoid the tenant blacklist. You should be able to get around that by not getting a final judgment, and negotiating some extra time.