1234 Broadway LLC v. Jing Yong Xu

10 Misc. 3d 655, 809 N.Y.S.2d 825, 2005 NY Slip Op 25478, 2005 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2503
Civil Court of the City of New York·Decided November 4, 2005·Published

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Joseph E. Capella, J.

[656] The respondent is a permanent hotel tenant whose apartment is subject to the Rent Stabilization Code (RSC). The parties’ initial one-year lease expired December 31, 2002, and there have been no lease renewals. The petitioner alleges in its “30 Day Notice of Termination” that the respondent does not occupy the subject hotel apartment as his primary residence. By notice of motion dated August 3, 2005, the petitioner seeks both discovery and use and occupancy (u&o). In opposition, .the respondent cross-moves for summary judgment and dismissal due to the petitioner’s alleged failure to serve a termination notice (also known as Golub notice) at least 90 and not more than 150 days prior to the expiration of the lease term.

A permanent hotel tenant is an individual who has continuously resided in the same hotel accommodation as his/her primary residence for a period of at least six months. (RSC [9 NYCRR] § 2520.6 [j].) Despite this classification, an owner may commence a proceeding to recover possession upon expiration of the existing lease term, if any, where the hotel accommodation is not occupied by the tenant as his/her primary residence (§ 2524.4 [c]), or where the apartment is sought for the owner’s use (§ 2524.4 [a]). An owner must first give the tenant 30 days’ notice of intent to commence a nonprimary residence proceeding. (§ 2524.4 [c].) The 30-day notice may be combined with the notice requirement of section 2524.2 (c) (2), which calls for service of a Golub notice “at least 90 and not more than 150 days prior to the expiration of the lease term,” (Emphasis added.) The purpose of a Golub notice is to apprise the tenant of the owner’s intent not to renew the lease and the specific reason (i.e., owner use or nonprimary) for same. (Scherer, Residential Landlord-Tenant Law in New York § 8:280 [2005].) As already noted, however, in the instant proceeding there is no current renewal lease to delineate the exact expiration date of the tenancy. Although a rent-stabilized tenant is typically entitled to a renewal lease at the expiration of the lease term (§ 2522.5 [b]), this does not appear to be true for a permanent hotel tenant. According to section 2522.5 (a) (2), a hotel occupant who obtains “a lease becomes a permanent tenant but the lease need not be renewed.” (Emphasis added.) The aforementioned nonrenewal language is further supported by the fact that hotel tenants are specifically excluded from section 2522.5 (b) of the RSC, which is the section that addresses renewal leases. Despite the fact that the parties herein at one time had a written lease agreement, there is currently no written renewal lease, nor does it appear that the petitioner was obligated to provide the respon[657] dent with same. Under these facts it would appear that requiring the petitioner to serve a Golub notice where there is no written renewal lease with a concrete expiration date for the tenancy (§ 2524.2 [c] [2]) is impractical.

A comparison of the statutory requirements for a Golub notice in a nonprimary residence proceeding versus one for owner use appears to indicate a legislative intent of not requiring said notice in a nonprimary proceeding where there is no current lease. For instance, where a landlord seeks to commence an owner use holdover proceeding against a permanent hotel tenant, service of a Golub notice must be made at least 90 but not more than 150 days prior to the expiration of the lease term, or where there is no lease, at least 90 but not more than 150 days prior to commencement. (§ 2524.2 [c] [3].) In a nonprimary residence holdover proceeding, however, the RSC only requires service of a Golub notice “at least 90 and not more than 150 days prior to the expiration of the lease term” (§ 2524.2 [c] [2]), and unlike the owner use case, it does not require and/or allow for service upon a “hotel . . . tenant without a lease, at least 90 and not more than 150 days prior to the commencement of a court proceeding.” (§ 2524.2 [c] [3].) If in fact a permanent hotel tenant is not entitled to a renewal lease, and the lack of one essentially creates a permanent month-to-month tenancy (Cambridge Dev., LLC v McCarthy, 2003 NY Slip Op 51433[U] [Civ Ct, Hous Part, NY County 2003]), then why require a Golub notice in an owner use case and not one for nonprimary residence. Although it is unclear from the RSC whether this omission was intentional or an oversight, these sections of the RSC (i.e., §§ 2524.4, 2524.2) were last amended in 2000, and there has been at least one known published decision which dispensed with the need for a Golub notice. (Cambridge Dev., LLC v McCarthy, 2003 NY Slip Op 51433[U], supra.) Moreover, the failure of the RSC to require and/or allow for service of a Golub notice upon a hotel tenant without a lease, at least 90 and not more than 150 days prior to the commencement of a nonprimary residence holdover proceeding, must be accepted as an indication that its exclusion was intentional. (Pajak v Pajak, 56 NY2d 394 [1982].) Without an exact expiration date that a current written renewal lease would provide, or statutory language permitting service 90 and not more than 150 days prior to the commencement of a court proceeding, this court finds that the petitioner was under no obligation to serve a Golub notice upon the respondent before commencing the instant nonprimary res[658] idence holdover proceeding. Therefore, the respondent’s cross motion for dismissal is denied.

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1234 Broadway LLC v. Jing Yong Xu, 10 Misc. 3d 655, 809 N.Y.S.2d 825, 2005 NY Slip Op 25478, 2005 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2503 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2005).

10 Misc. 3d 655 (1234 Broadway LLC v. Jing Yong Xu) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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