Mr. Barr claims that in November 2011 he signed a new lease for the apartment with a one-year term commencing February *6101, 2012. Both he and Mr. Huggins agree that Mr. Huggins did not accept a one-year lease. Mr. Huggins claims, however, that in April 2012 Mr. Barr agreed to give him a two-year lease and he (Mr. Barr) changed the expiration year on the lease he had previously signed from 2013 to 2014. Mr. Barr denies this and claims that it is Mr. Huggins who changed the expiration year.
Based on its examination of the new lease, the court finds that Mr. Barr did not alter it. While the top of the “4” in the year 2014 comes to a point, each of the several other handwritten “4s” on that lease were open at the top. Thus, the court concludes that Mr. Barr did not agree to give Mr. Huggins a two-year lease and, since Mr. Huggins did not agree to the one-year term offered by Mr. Barr, there is no current lease in effect.
Retaliatory Eviction
The statutory protections against retaliatory eviction are set forth in section 223-b of the Real Property Law, which applies to “all rental residential premises except owner-occupied dwellings with less than four units.” (Real Property Law § 223-b [6].) It provides, among other things, that no landlord shall serve a notice to quit or commence a summary proceeding to recover possession of real property in retaliation for