Tenant Used Studio Apartment as Office

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for nonprimary residence. The court ruled for landlord after a trial. Tenant moved into the studio apartment in 1985. Landlord showed that tenant owned a two-bedroom condo apartment in the same building from 1989 to 1994. Tenant owned a house upstate from 1987 to 1996. In 1996, tenant sublet another two-bedroom apartment in a different building. Tenant claimed that he sublet that apartment for his girlfriend. But tenant signed the sublet application and stated that he needed that apartment because he was selling his upstate house. Tenant paid for the electric, telephone, and cable television service to the other apartment. His telephone and electric use at the other apartment were higher. The doorman of landlord's building saw tenant enter rather than exit the building in the mornings. A friend of tenant's who testified at the trial admitted that he saw tenant at the apartment for business reasons. The court found that tenant used the apartment as an office but resided primarily in the sublet apartment.

Rocky 116 LLC v. Weston: NYLJ, 7/3/02, p. 22, col. 4 (Civ. Ct. NY; Schachner, J)