Rent Stabilization Code (RSC) Section 2523.5 requires that with respect to rent-stabilized leases, the owner must notify the tenant not more than 150 days and not less than 90 days prior to the end of the lease term, of the expiration of the lease, and must offer to renew the lease at the legal regulated rent and otherwise on the same terms and conditions of the expiring lease. The statute provides that the tenant may then accept the offer by signing the prescribed renewal lease form and returning same to the owner, who must then execute the renewal lease form and return same to the tenant.
Split of Authority
A recent decision by the Civil Court, Kings County (Judge Jeannine Baer Kuzniewski), in 757 Miller Owners v. Smith, NYLJ 1202780573592 (Civ. Kings Feb. 17, 2017) (Smith), highlights the problems which may arise when an owner tenders a renewal lease to a tenant as required under the RSC, after the owner had previously served on the tenant a notice of termination based on the tenant having violated a substantial obligation of the tenancy. In Smith, the court held that the owner’s tendering and execution of a renewal lease as required under the RSC, without any reservation of rights or other conditioning language, vitiated the previously served termination notice, thereby requiring the dismissal of the owner’s summary holdover proceeding.
