Landlord Waived 'No-Pets' Clause

Landlord was the sponsor of building's cooperative conversion and held the unsold shares to tenant's rent-stabilized apartment. The building was "pet friendly," and many tenants had dogs despite the co-op rules. Landlord claimed that tenant violated his lease by keeping a dog. Landlord also claimed that the dog was aggressive. Tenant argued that landlord had waived the right to object to the dog by waiting too long to sue. The trial court ruled against tenant. Tenant appealed and won. Tenant had another dog for many years without objection. When that dog died in 2005, tenant got a new dog two months later. The new dog was a mixed-breed pit bull terrier. Tenant walked the dog on a daily basis for more than three months in open view of the co-op building's 23-hour door attendants and other building employees. Landlord, the apartment owner, had an off-site managing agent and claimed that he had no notice of the new dog. But testimony and records introduced at trial showed that there was interaction between landlord, its managing agent, and the co-op employees. Among other things, landlord's managing agent hired the co-op's employees to make apartment repairs that landlord was responsible for. So landlord waited too long to seek eviction for violation of tenant's "no-pets" lease clause. However, the trial court never addressed landlord's other claim that the dog's behavior was aggressive. So the appeals court sent the case back to the trial court for further consideration of that issue.

1725 York Venture v. Block: NYLJ, 5/13/08, p. 32, col. 2 (App. T. 1 Dept.; McKeon, PJ, Davis, Schoenfeld, JJ)