In one of the first tests of the 2019 Rent Law’s provisions restricting security deposits and prepaid rent, Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. won for an extreme upscale cooperative in Manhattan, the right to keep the multimillion-dollar, multiyear prepaid maintenance they had negotiated from a foreign national with an unsavory international reputation. Arguing that the prepaid maintenance Full Article…
Court lets Fortis off hook for Williamsburg Condo defects
Developer wins argument that shoddy workmanship is board’s problem now Since purchasing 37 condo units from bankruptcy nearly a decade ago, a Brooklyn developer has denied that it also acquired responsibility for fixing defects in the building. Now, a court has let the developer off the hook. A panel of Appellate Division judges found that Fortis Property Full Article…
Landlord Laws, Tenant Moratoriums; Where We Are Now
By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman The Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. landlord-tenant attorneys have been navigating the constant flow of changing laws and Executive Orders under COVID19 to serve tenants with notices and bring tenants to court, getting landlords their rents in spite of the eviction moratoriums. These moratoriums, in one form or another, Full Article…
Pay When Paid, Limits and Limitations
By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman October 10, 2018 Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman discuss “Pay-if-Paid” clauses in construction contracts and write: “Like many jurisdictions across the United States, New York outlaws Pay-If-Paid clauses, but, in New York’s case, only indirectly.” Construction projects entail financial risk—risks for the owners of the property, risks Full Article…
2017, The Year of Many New Landlord-Tenant Laws
By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman June 12, 2018 Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman discuss the many enactments related to harassment, bedbugs, and smoking, the first two of which expand tenants’ rights and the final one intended to constrict them. On Aug. 9, 2017 and in the ensuing months, becoming effective at scattered times over Full Article…
Negotiating RPAPL §881 License Agreements
By Adam Leitman Bailey, John M. Desiderio, and Joanna Peck Feb 20, 2018 Adam Leitman Bailey, John Desiderio, and Joanna Peck discuss practical considerations for parties to consider when negotiating RPAPL §881 licensing agreements, noting that although §881 was once described as a “little-used law” it is now required reading for all attorneys with developer Full Article…
When Can Condo and Co-op Boards Fine the Owners and Residents?
January 30, 2018 By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio review the authority given to boards of condominiums and cooperative corporations to impost and enforce respectively on condo unit owners and cooperative shareholder-tenants who violate building house rules. This article will review the authority given to boards Full Article…
Departmental Divide on Shareholder Family Occupancy
December 12, 2017 By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman discuss a split among the First and Second Department Appellate Divisions on their interpretations of a common clause in proprietary leases for cooperative apartments relating to whether a proprietary lessee must live in the apartment simultaneously with a close Full Article…