By: Adam Leitman Bailey & Dov Treiman September, 2014 Part I: How To Overcome Tenant Resistance To An MCI Application I. General Overview Major Capital Improvement Increases (MCI’s) are a concept that parties can contract for if they are not subject to rent regulation. However, generally speaking, unregulated residential tenants rarely do contract for them. Full Article…
About Adam Leitman Bailey
Actively at the helm of the law firm he built from scratch, Adam Leitman Bailey, Esq. practices residential and commercial real estate law. Among New York’s most successful and prominent real estate attorneys, Mr. Bailey is one of two attorneys from a law firm with less than 30 attorneys that has been ranked in Chambers & Partners, honored with a Martindale-Hubbell “AV” Preeminent rating, rated by Best Lawyers for himself and his law firm, and selected by Super Lawyers as one of New York’s “Top 100” attorneys, a list that included only five real estate law firms’ attorneys that year.
One New York State Judge wrote that Adam Leitman Bailey “was the best trial lawyer I saw in my nine years as a Judge in New York City” while another stated that he had known Bailey for fifteen years and “that he is a brilliant lawyer and innovative who always worked zealously on behalf of his clients.” The Commercial Observer named him as one of New York’s Most Powerful Real Estate Attorneys. Real Estate Weekly recognized him as “one of the most respected commercial real estate attorneys in not only New York City, but arguably the country.”
The New York Times referred to his legal strategy and legislation proposed in one case as “novel,” in addition to remarking on another case in which “Adam Leitman Bailey fought on…grinding through excruciating detail and obscure Perry Mason moments.” After Mr. Bailey’s firm used a forgotten statute to prevail in a landmark case, the Wall Street Journal quoted a prominent New York developer’s attorney who called the holding a “game changer” affecting real estate nationwide. Dateline NBC referred to Mr. Bailey as “aggressive, tenacious and smart” in asking him to share his negotiating secrets on its nationally syndicated television program. Mr. Bailey’s advocacy has prevailed in numerous important trials and cases before various courts and trial venues, including Housing, Civil, and New York State Supreme and Federal Courts, as well as various New York Appellate tribunals.
Adam Leitman Bailey has successfully defended a number of leading title companies and lenders in the nation and prevailed in numerous trials and settlements involving commercial and residential building owners, tenants, real estate developers, real estate brokerages, insurance companies and cooperative and condominium boards. In addition, Mr. Bailey has favorably represented a number of tenant and homeowner associations as well as commercial and residential tenants, garnering millions of dollars in compensation and rent abatements for these associations and individuals. For clients facing landlords who leave buildings in disrepair, Mr. Bailey has an unusually successful track record of getting those residential towers, apartments, and stores repaired and all services restored.
Adam Leitman Bailey has also applied his expertise in closing various real estate deals and commercial leases. He has been named to the Board of Editors for Commercial Leasing Law & Strategy and has a regular real estate column in the New York Law Journal. Bailey’s lease-drafting skills received national attention when BlumbergExcelsior, the nation’s leading form distributor, responsible for over 70 percent of the residential leases signed in the United States, tapped Bailey to draft a new set of residential and office leases for purchase nationwide. BlumbergExcelsior’s principal remarked that Bailey’s lease drafting skills were “remarkable.”
His success as cooperative and condominium general counsel earned Adam Leitman Bailey recognition in “Who’s Who in Real Estate” by Habitat Magazine. Mr. Bailey authored his first book, Finding the Uncommon Deal: A Top New York Lawyer Explains How to Buy a Home for the Lowest Possible Price (Wiley, 2011). This guide through the purchasing process for first-time home buyers became a New York Times bestseller and is available for purchase worldwide. Mr. Bailey has also been elected a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL), where he serves on the Insurance and Title Insurance committees, and is a former member of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys (ACMA).
Adam Leitman Bailey’s Personal Website
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Youtube
Housing Development Fund Corporations: Is Now The Right Time to Privatize?
By: Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. September 1st, 2014 In the 1970s the City created HDFCs via Land Disposition Agreements (LDAs) to promote developing blighted and underdeveloped areas into affordable housing. The LDAs transferred land to cooperative housing corporations in exchange for the promise that those cooperatives would adhere to strict principles to create and maintain Full Article…
High Rent Vacancy Not a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Card
By: Adam Leitman Bailey & Dov Treiman August 22nd, 2014 Throughout the residential housing industry, there is dangerous ignorance of the amendments promulgated this year, amending the Rent Stabilization Code. All owners should be reading as much as possible about these amendments. Business is simply not the same as it was. One of the massive Full Article…
Courts Rule on Underfunded Condominium Reserve Funds
By: Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Sponsors of condominium conversions really only have two material obligations: to convert the form of ownership and fund the reserve fund. The formula for determining the amount of the reserve fund is set forth in New York Administrative Code Section 26-702(b) (the “Reserve Fund Law”). Historically, sponsors have interpreted the Full Article…
Court Grants License To Change Licensing Law Rules
By: Adam Leitman Bailey & John M. Desiderio August 13th, 2014 Since at least as early as 1849, in the case of Dolittle v. Eddy,1 New York law has defined a license as the “authority to enter on the lands of another, and do a particular act or series of acts, without possessing any interest Full Article…
Evicting a Tenant for Having Too Many Residents or Violating the Roommate Law
By: Adam Leitman Bailey & Dov Treiman For middle class American society, the idea of the minimum amount of space one would want to live in is vastly larger than standards accepted as absolutely normal in other times, places, and cultures. Consider that a 64 square foot igloo is commonly said to comfortably house five Full Article…
Q&A: Setting Aside Accessible Parking
By: Adam Leitman Bailey & John Desiderio August 1st, 2014 Q: Who owns the handicapped parking spaces set aside in the parking facility of a newly constructed condominium? Keeping it Accessible in Kings County A: “Sponsors of newly constructed condominiums are responsible for creating the condominium as a legal entity and for constructing the physical Full Article…
Non-Traditional Natural Relatives in Regulated Housing
By: Adam Leitman Bailey & Dov Treiman July 30th, 2014 When the Court of Appeals decided Braschi v. Stahl1 in 1989, many regarded it as purposed to give gay couples the same kind of protections that straight couples had in rent regulation, allowing one like a spouse to succeed to a tenancy as if he Full Article…