Rent Stabilization Rules

Under certain circumstances, the Rent Stabilization rules (Rent Stabilization Code) allows a landlord to recover a stabilized apartment for personal use.

In a recent case, Nestor v. Britt, 2012 NY Slip Op 22034 – NY: Appellate Term, 1st Dept. 2012, the court stated the following:

We agree, essentially for reasons stated by Civil Court, that petitioner-landlords are barred from maintaining the within owner use holdover proceeding based upon their demonstrated failure to comply with the equivalent housing requirements of Rent Stabilization Code (9 NYCRR) § 2524.4(a)(2). The cited Code section requires a landlord seeking to recover a stabilized apartment for personal use to offer an elderly or disabled tenant “lawfully occupying” the unit “an equivalent or superior housing accommodation at the same or lower regulated rent in a closely proximate area.” As the motion court properly recognized, the landlords’ offer to the elderly tenant of any number of unregulated “market” apartments did not satisfy their statutory obligation to offer tenant “an equivalent or superior housing accommodation at the same or lower regulated rent” (emphasis added) (Code § 2524.4(a)(2); see Rent Stabilization Law [Administrative Code of City of NY] §26-511[c][9][b] [“same or lower stabilized rent”), a requirement which plainly presupposes that the proposed alternative housing unit itself be covered by rent stabilization.