Tenant Complains Adjoining Building Blocks Light and Air

Rent-controlled successor tenant sued landlord and owner of adjoining building, and asked the court to order that the adjoining 25-story residential building be torn down. Tenant claimed that a cantilevered structure on the adjoining building covered an airshaft and blocked light and air to three of the eight rooms in tenant's apartment. Landlord and other building owner asked the court to dismiss the case, claiming that tenant had no standing to sue and no valid claim.

The court ruled for landlord. Prior landlord and prior tenant, as well as other building tenants, had signed an agreement in 1997 to permit prior landlord's development of the adjoining lot in exchange for some reconfiguration of the apartment and a reduction in monthly rent from $687 to $100. Prior landlord later sold the lot and gave adjoining owner an easement to cantilever a new building over the air shaft of tenant's building. Tenant took over his grandfather's apartment in 2013 and claimed that he was harmed by the prior agreements because a substantial portion of the living space had been removed and the statutorily mandated light and air had been cut off. But tenant cited no law giving him a right to a set amount of light and air under these circumstances. And tenant wasn't the tenant of record at the time the adjoining building was constructed and assumed his tenancy with full knowledge of the construction. There also was no decrease in required services under rent control requiring prior DHCR approval. Prior landlord and prior tenant had signed a mutual voluntary private written agreement to the reduction of light and air in the apartment. So the DHCR's approval wasn't needed. 

Lieberman v. 244 E. 86th St. LLC: Index No. 156370/2013, NYLJ No. 1202677858702 (Sup. Ct. NY; 10/30/14; Singh, J)