Case Notes in
Sublets
Category
- Access
- Alterations
- Appeals
- Arbitration
- Assessment
- Attorney Fees
- Attorney-Client
- Authority to Sue
- Balcony/Terrace Rights
- Bike Lane
- Board of Directors
- Books and Records
- Breach of Lease
- Business Judgment Rule
- Bylaws
- Bylaws/House Rules
- Certificate of Occupancy
- Charges/Fees
- Commercial Unit
- Common Element
- Common Elements
- Companion Animal
- Constitutionality
- Construction Defects
- Contracts
- Conversion
- Defamation
- Discovery
- Discrimination
- Due Diligence
- Easement
- Elections
- Estate
- Eviction
- Eviction/Termination
- Fiduciary Duty
- Fines
- Foreclosure
- Fraud
- Governance
- Gym
- House Rules
- Indemnification
- Indemnification/Subrogation
- Injunction
- Insurance
- Labor Law
- Liability of Directors
- Licenses
- Liens
- Maintenance
- Malpractice
- Management
- Mechanic's Lien
- Misrepresentations
- Motion Practice
- Motion Practive
- Negligence
- Notice of Pendency
- Nuisance
- Occupancy Agreement
- Ownership
- Parking
- Partnership
- Personal Injury
- Pets
- Property Damage
- Proprietary Lease
- Reasonableness
- Receivership
- Release
- Repairs
- Representations
- Sales
- Sponsor
- Statute of Limitations
- Stock/Shares
- Stocks/Shares
- Sublets
- Succession Rights
- Tax
- Third-Party Liability
- Transfers
- Trespassing
- Trial Practice
- Violations
- Warranty of Habitability
- Yellowstone Injunction
- Zoning
First published: Dec 2019
Kling v. The 129 Lafayette Street CondominiumIt can be difficult for condo boards to know who is going to be a problematic subletter, even if the board – as some do – requires an application package with references. A board has a right of first refusal, and most boards are not in the business of being a landlord, nor should they be. The onus is properly on the owner of the unit to determine whether the subtenant is likely to comply with the rules of the building. If the subtenant fails to comply, it is the unit-owner who is responsible for the tenant’s behavior. Nonetheless, condo boards should review their rules and bylaws to see if there is a way to amend them to effectively discourage bad behavior.
Read full articleFirst published: Jul 2012
Bregman v. 111 Tenants Corp.This decision addresses myriad issues concerning the rights of boards and shareholders who have engaged in a course of conduct over many years. Factually, the plaintiff could not demonstrate that she was given additional rights when she purchased at the time of conversion in 1972. Although the court addressed this point, it is not clear that it would have made a difference in the outcome. Earlier appellate cases held that, where sponsors of co-op conversions gave special rights to “original purchasers,” i.e., those who purchased from the sponsor, those rights were invalidated based upon the Business Corporation Law’s provisions requiring that all shares be treated equally. (We note that the Business Corporation Law does not apply to condominiums.) The Bregman court explained that, even if the sublet resolutions were passed in light of the prior treatment of plaintiff, the resolutions were applicable to all shareholders who wished to sublet. The fact that the plaintiff may have been the reason the issue came to the board’s attention was of no moment and did not serve as a basis to invalidate the resolution.
Read full articleFirst published: Nov 2005
DeSoignies v. Cornasesk House Tenants’ Corp.This case illustrates the ongoing conflict between a board’s power to enact house rules and shareholders’ rights to control fundamental changes that amount to a proprietary lease amendment requiring shareholder approval. It suggests that rule-making may be counterproductive when subletting requests can be reviewed and approved on a case-by-case basis without a lease amendment.
Read full articleFirst published: May 2004
Edith K. Spiegel v. 1065 Park Avenue CorporationThis case reinforces established law about treating some shareholders differently from others. Because of the Business Corporation Law dictates, this is not permissible. Special privileges, even if provided for in the proprietary lease, are unenforceable. However, rights of holders of unsold shares may still be protected.
Read full articleFirst published: May 2004
Fraken Builders Inc. v. Joanne M. CicconeThis case involved a sublease in a co-op apartment building. The co-op here was a proprietary lessee seeking to enforce its house rule about required floor coverings against a shareholder occupant of the apartment who was obviously the subject of complaints from adjacent occupants. Undoubtedly, the co-op encouraged this action by its shareholder. Because the sublease incorporated by reference the house rules from the proprietary lease, the shareholder was bound to observe those rules. The significance of this case is that the court sanctioned enforcement of required floor coverings and thus validated this common and widely used co-op house rule.
Read full articleFirst published: Sep 2003
Amalgamated Dwellings Inc. v. Szold & Brandwen, P.C.The message here is to review invoices for legal services promptly when submitted after the services are rendered or disbursements incurred. The court was not sympathetic to the co-op's efforts to question the appropriateness of legal fees paid many years ago before there was some estrangement in the attorney-client relationship.
Read full articleFirst published: Sep 2003
445/86 Owners Corp. v. Charles HaydonIt appears that the co-op pursued the wrong remedy. Instead of seeking to collect a sublet fee for the sole occupancy of an apartment by the shareholder's mother-in-law, it should have brought an action to end the unauthorized use of an apartment by a family member where the shareholder of record was absent, a violation of most proprietary leases.
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