1719 Gates LLC v. Torres, 2024 NY Slip Op 24249 (2024)

Citation: 1719 Gates LLC v. Torres, 2024 NY Slip Op 24249 (2024)
Parent Document: 1719 Gates LLC v. Torres, 2024 NY Slip Op 24249 (2024)
Jurisdiction: New York (state)
Effective Date: 2024-09-23
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10124589/1719-gates-llc-v-torres/ ↗

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Limiting the removal of a GCEL-tenant based solely on outstanding rental arrears to a nonpayment proceeding is also more consistent with the statutory scheme embodied within the RPAPL, which sets forth the governing procedures for summary proceedings. This includes the requirement to serve a 14-day rent demand before commencement of a nonpayment providing a good-faith approximation of the amount owed for the relevant period in dispute (see RPAPL 711(2); Shoprite Supermarkets v Yonkers Plaza Shopp, 29 AD3d 564 [2d Dept 2006]). Besides allowing for the early preparation of defenses, the rent demand affords the tenant the possibility of avoiding eviction altogether and the stresses associated with traveling to housing court by promptly paying the rent sought, an option that is not available in a non-renewal holdover. Even after commencement, tenants in nonpayment proceedings can pay the arrears prior to the first court date to render the proceeding moot (RPAPL 731(4)) or pay the full rent due at any time post-judgment to avoid eviction (RPAPL 749(3)). Affording GCEL-covered tenants the benefits of these more liberal cure provisions, specifically envisioned by the legislature as warranted in connection with nonpayment proceedings, more effectively effectuates the longstanding legislative preference against avoiding the needless forfeiture of rent-regulated tenancies, which should now include GCEL-tenants (see Park Summit Realty Corp. v Frank, 107 Misc 2d 318, 324 [App Term, 1st Dept 1980], affd 84 AD2d 700 [1981], affd on other grounds 56 NY2d 1025 [1982] [Concluding in the analogous rent-stabilization context that a nonpayment rather than a holdover based on rental arrears is "more in harmony with the legislative intent of the Rent Stabilization Law to afford the stabilized tenant the opportunity to cure a rent default which [*7]often may be the result of an oversight easily remedied.").[FN5]

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