Tenant Must Allow Access for Building Repair

Landlord sued tenant to get access to tenant's penthouse apartment to perform roof repairs. The court ruled for landlord, and tenant appealed, claiming he didn't want landlord to alter his apartment terrace doors in any way during the course of the repairs. The appeals court ruled against tenant. Tenant's lease stated that landlord must restore the apartment to its proper and usual condition after repairs. However, this didn't bar landlord from raising the terrace doors to allow for installation of flashing for the new roof. Landlord otherwise would have to leave the distance between the doors and the roof surface unchanged, which would have reduced coverage of the new roof's warranty, or lower the roof, which would have cost 14 times as much as raising the doors.

78th & Park Corp. v. Hochfelder: 693 NYS2d 527 (1999) (App. Div.1 Dept.; Sullivan, JP, Mazzarelli, Lerner, Rubin, Saxe, JJ)