N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 9 § 2524.4

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 45, November 2, 2024

Section 2524.4 - Grounds for refusal to renew lease, or in hotels, discontinuing a hotel tenancy, without order of the DHCR

The owner shall not be required to offer a renewal lease to a tenant, or in hotels, to continue a hotel tenancy, and may commence an action or proceeding to recover possession in a court of competent jurisdiction, upon the expiration of the existing lease term, if any, after serving the tenant with a notice as required pursuant to section 2524.2 of this Part, only on one or more of the following grounds:

(a) Occupancy by owner or member of owner's immediate family.

(1) An owner who seeks to recover possession of a housing accommodation because of immediate and compelling necessity for such owner's personal use and occupancy as his or her primary residence in the City of New York and/or for the use and occupancy of a member of his or her immediate family as his or her primary residence in the City of New York, except that tenants in a noneviction conversion plan pursuant to section 352-eeee of the General Business Law may not be evicted on this ground on or after the date the conversion plan is declared effective.

(2) The provisions of this subdivision shall not apply where a tenant or the spouse of a tenant lawfully occupying the dwelling unit is sixty-two years of age or older, or has been a tenant in a dwelling unit in that building for fifteen years or more, or has an impairment which results from anatomical, physiological or psychological conditions, other than addiction to alcohol, gambling, or any controlled substance, which are demonstrable by medically acceptable clinical and laboratory diagnostic techniques, and which are expected to be permanent and which prevent the tenant from engaging in any substantial gainful employment, unless the owner offers to provide and, if requested, provides an equivalent or superior housing accommodation at the same or lower regulated rent in a closely proximate area.

(3) An owner may recover only one rent stabilized or rent controlled housing accommodation, whether for his or her personal use and occupancy or that of his immediate family. The provisions of this subdivision shall only permit one of the individual owners of any building, whether such ownership is by joint tenancy, tenancy in common, or tenancy by the entirety to recover possession of one dwelling unit for personal use and occupancy.

(4) No action or proceeding to recover possession pursuant to this subdivision shall be commenced in a court of competent jurisdiction unless the owner shall have served the tenant with a termination notice in accordance with subdivisions (a), (b) and (c)(3) of section 2524.2 of this Part.

(5) The failure of the owner to utilize the housing accommodation for the purpose intended after the tenant vacates, or to continue in occupancy for a period of three years, may result in a forfeiture of the right to any increases in the legal regulated rent in the building in which such housing accommodation is contained for a period of three years, unless the owner offers and the tenant accepts re-occupancy of such housing accommodation on the same terms and conditions as existed at the time the tenant vacated, or the owner establishes to the satisfaction of the DHCR that circumstances changed after the tenant vacated which prevented the owner from utilizing the housing accommodation for the purpose intended, and in such event, the housing accommodation may be rented at the appropriate guidelines without a vacancy allowance. This paragraph shall not eliminate or create any claim that the former tenant of the housing accommodation may or may not have against the owner.

(b) Recovery by a not-for-profit institution.

(1) The owner is a hospital, convent, monastery, asylum, public institution, college, school dormitory, or any institution operated exclusively for charitable or educational purposes on a nonprofit basis, and the owner, upon notice to the tenant in accordance with section 2524.2(c)(4) of this Part, requires the housing accommodation for its own use in connection with its charitable or educational purposes, and either:

(i) the tenant's initial tenancy commenced after the owner acquired the property, and the owner requires the housing accommodation in connection with its charitable or educational purposes, including but not limited to housing for affiliated persons; provided that the owner may not refuse to renew the lease of a tenant whose right to occupancy commenced prior to July 1, 1978 pursuant to a written lease or written rental agreement, and who did not receive notice at the time of the execution of the lease that the tenancy was subject to nonrenewal; provided further that a tenant who was affiliated with the owning institution at the commencement of his or her tenancy and whose affiliation terminates during such tenancy shall not have the right to a renewal lease; or

(ii) the owner requires the housing accommodation for a nonresidential use in connection with its charitable or educational purposes.

(2) In addition to such penalty provided in section 2526.2 of this Title, the failure of the owner without good cause to utilize or to continue to use the housing accommodation for the purpose intended after the tenant vacates, and for three years thereafter, shall result in a forfeiture of the right to any increases in the legal regulated rent for the housing accommodation involved for a three-year period following the recovery of the housing accommodation from the tenant.

(3) If an owner who recovers a housing accommodation pursuant to this subdivision, or any successor in interest, within three-years after recovery of the housing accommodation from the tenant, utilizes such housing accommodation for purposes other than those permitted hereunder without good cause, then such owner or successor shall be liable to the removed tenant for three times the damages sustained on account of such removal, plus reasonable attorney's fees and costs as determined by a court of competent jurisdiction, provided that such tenant commences an action to recover such damages within three years from the date of recovery of the housing accommodation. The damages sustained by such tenant shall be the difference between the rent paid by such tenant for the recovered housing accommodation, and the rental value of a comparable rent-regulated housing accommodation, plus the reasonable costs of the removal of the tenant's property.

(c) Primary residence. The housing accommodation is not occupied by the tenant, not including subtenants or occupants, as his or her primary residence, as determined by a court of competent jurisdiction; provided, however, that no action or proceeding shall be commenced seeking to recover possession on the ground that the housing accommodation is not occupied by the tenant as his or her primary residence unless the owner or lessor shall have given 30 days' notice to the tenant of his or her intention to commence such action or proceeding on such grounds. Such notice may be combined with the notice required by section 2524.2(c)(2) of this Title. A tenant who is a victim of domestic violence, as defined in section four hundred fifty-nine-a of the social services law, who has left the unit because of such violence, and who asserts an intent to return to the housing accommodation shall be deemed to be occupying the unit as his or her primary residence. In addition, a tenant who has left the housing accommodation and is paying a nominal rent pursuant to Part 2520.11(e)(6) of this Title shall be deemed to be occupying the unit as his or her primary residence. For the purposes of this paragraph, where a housing accommodation is rented to a not-for-profit for providing, as of and after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand nineteen that amended this paragraph, permanent housing to individuals who are or were homeless or at risk of homelessness, affiliated individuals authorized to use such accommodations by such not-for profit shall be deemed to be tenants.

N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 9 § 2524.4

Amended New York State Register November 8, 2023/Volume XLV, Issue 45, eff. 11/8/2023