Mr. Barr could have commenced a holdover proceeding in February 2012, after Mr. Huggins' lease expired. Nevertheless, he did not serve a notice to quit until the end of August, and did so, as he stated, because Mr. Huggins refused to pay his rent that month. It appears, therefore, that Mr. Barr would not have commenced this case if Mr. Huggins had paid his rent. Given that Mr. Huggins' share of the rent was determined by NYCHA and set forth in Mr. Barr's HAP contract with NYCHA, and the HAP contract was still in effect, Mr. Barr could have sought Mr. Huggins' share of the rent in a nonpayment proceeding. The court concludes that by electing instead to commence a holdover proceeding, Mr. Barr sought to retaliate against Mr. Huggins for withholding rent, and would not otherwise have commenced this case.
Accordingly, the petition is dismissed. The Clerk of the Court shall enter judgment in favor of Mr. Huggins and against Mr. Barr.
Footnotes
Footnote 1: Although the letter is dated May 4, 2012, it states that it is regarding a balance of rent due "as of November 2010 ($3,783)." It also states that "you haven't been consistence [sic] in making your rent payments since November 2010 thus [sic] February 2011" and that he owes his portion of rent from "November - January" at $652 per month and from "February - April" at $609 per month. At trial, Mr. Huggins testified that he had paid his rent in full.
Footnote 2: Although the petition identifies Mr. Huggins' apartment as being the second floor of the subject building, and the first lease for the apartment identifies it as apartment 2, in his Housing Part (HP) action Mr. Huggins identified his apartment as apartment 1 and on his inspection request, stated that it was located on the first floor.