Tenant of Sponsor-Owned Condominium Unit Not Protected by Rent Stabilization

Facts: Landlord of tenant's apartment had been the sponsor of building's condominium conversion plan. Tenant moved in some time after the noneviction condominium conversion took place and wasn't subject to rent control or rent stabilization. Landlord later sought to evict tenant when her lease expired. Tenant claimed that under the Martin Act, a law governing condominium and cooperative conversions, she could get a lease renewal because she was a ''nonpurchasing tenant.'' Court: Tenant loses. The legislature didn't intend to provide a continued right to lease renewals to tenants who rent sponsor-owned condos after conversion. By law, the sponsor was ''purchaser under the plan.'' So tenant couldn't be a nonpurchasing tenant. This referred only to rent-controlled or rent-stabilized tenants who lived in the apartment at the time of the condo conversion.

Park West Village Assocs. v. Nishioka: NYLJ, p. 27, col. 3 (5/26/99) (Civ. Ct. NY; Kramer, J)