Nonrenewal Notice Not Mailed on Time

Landlord sued to evict three rent-stabilized tenants to recover apartments for occupancy for him and his family members. In 2003, the cases were marked off the court calendar for pretrial questioning, and to resolve questions concerning delivery of court papers and payment of use and occupancy. In 2005, tenants restored the cases to the court calendar and asked the court to dismiss them. They claimed that landlord didn't deliver the lease nonrenewal notices on time. The court ruled for tenants and dismissed the cases. Rent Stabilization Code Section 2524.2(c)(3) required landlord to send combined lease nonrenewal and termination notices between 90 and 150 days before tenants' leases ended. But the Court of Appeals now required landlord to add five days to allow for mailing the notices. Here, landlord's notices weren't sent by mail at least 95 days before leases ended. The court did point out that the Court of Appeals decision in ATM One LLC v. Landaverde applied specifically to 10-day notices to cure, and that courts were divided on whether the ruling applied to other types of notices.

Croman v. Thompson: NYLJ, 2/23/05, p. 21, col. 3 (Civ. Ct. NY; Schreiber, J)