Landlord Can Evict Tenant Whose Guests Fought at Building

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for creating a nuisance. Landlord claimed that tenant had permitted up to 15 people to live in the apartment, causing physical destruction of the premises and the issuance of many violations. Landlord and tenant signed a settlement agreement that put tenant on probation for 15 months. Tenant agreed not to engage in or permit the complained of conduct. Landlord later went back to court, claiming that tenant had breached the agreement. The court ruled against landlord after a hearing.

Landlord appealed and won. Landlord’s surveillance videotape showed that one night many people went in and out of tenant’s apartment while she was home. An altercation broke out among several of tenant’s guests in the hallway outside tenant’s apartment. It then moved downstairs and one of the guests shattered the glass of the building’s entrance door. Another guest repeatedly kicked the bottom glass pane and banged on that door. The appeals court found that tenant materially breached the settlement agreement by failing to take any meaningful steps to curtail the recurrent destructive and antisocial behavior of her roommates and/or guests. Landlord could evict tenant.

289 & 305 Associates v. Mohan: 2016 NY Slip Op 50650(U), 2016 WL 1650224 (App. T. 1 Dept.; 4/26/16; Lowe III, PJ, Schoenfeld, Shulman, JJ)