Amended Law Protecting Tenants from Eviction in Condo Conversion Not Applied Retroactively

Former tenants sued landlords in a class action, claiming breach of contract. The tenants were all nonpurchasing tenants and either senior citizens or disabled when a noneviction condominium conversion plan was submitted to the NY Attorney General in 2014. They argued that their tenancies were improperly terminated under General Business Law Section 352-eeee after landlords converted the buildings to condominium ownership. The court ruled against tenants without a trial.

Tenants appealed and lost. The version of GBL Section 352-eeee that was in effect when landlords' offering plans became effective didn't extend the same protections against eviction available under eviction plans to senior citizens or disabled persons to those same tenants in buildings like the ones in question that were being converted under non-eviction plans. In 2015 and 2016, the NY State Law Department issued emergency, revised regulations extending the same protections to senior citizens and disabled persons under non-eviction plans as those available under eviction plans. And, effective June 14, 2019, HSTPA  amended GBL Section 352-eeee to provide the same protections to senior citizens and disabled persons under non-eviction plans as under eviction plans. But the revised regulations applied only to future offering plans, and neither the 2015/2016 regulations nor the 2019 amendments to the law applied retroactively. In this case, as the law stood in 2015, the condo conversion plans were properly applied, and tenants weren't entitled to the protections they now sought. 

Kessler v. Carnegie Park Assoc., LP: 2020 NY Slip Op 06767, Index No. 2016-12629 (App. Div. 2 Dept.; 11/18/20; Rivera, JP, Dillon, Maltese, Duffy, JJ)