Landlord Can't Claim Units Are Unregulated

Landlord sued to evict at least six residential tenants of a commercial building, claiming that they were unregulated. Tenants weren’t subject to the Loft Law but had made apartment renovations with landlord’s consent, and landlord had taken steps to legalize conversion to residential use. But then landlord sent termination notices and, after doing so, withdrew its application to legalize the building before starting the eviction cases. Tenants claimed that they were subject to rent stabilization and asked the court to dismiss the eviction cases. Landlord argued that since there was no pending application to legalize the building during the eviction proceedings, the ETPA didn’t apply. But tenants had started a lawsuit against landlord, seeking a declaration of ETPA coverage before landlord withdrew its legalization application. So, under controlling prior case law, ETPA protection was available because landlord, during a proceeding in which tenants sought ETPA protection, actually sought to legalize the residential use.

Sanjer Raz LLC v. Munson: NYLJ, 2/10/10, p. 27, col. 3 (Civ. Ct. Kings; Finkelstein, J)