The owner served the notice of non-renewal pursuant to RSC §2524.4(a)(1), which allows an owner to refuse to renew a rent stabilized tenant’s lease where the owner “seeks to recover possession of a housing accommodation for such owner’s personal use and occupancy as his or her primary residence in the City of New York and/or for the use and occupancy of a member of his or her immediate family . . . .”

The content of the notice of non-renewal, which must be served between 150 and 90 days before the tenant’s lease expires, is governed by RSC §2524.2(b), which states:

Every notice to a tenant to vacate or surrender possession of a housing accommodation shall state the ground under section 2524.3 or 2524.4 of this Part, upon which the owner relies for removal or eviction of the tenant, the facts necessary to establish the existence of such ground, and the date when the tenant is required to surrender possession (emphasis supplied).


The owner in Hirsch commenced a holdover proceeding when the tenant refused to vacate at the end of her lease term. The tenant moved Housing Court (Milin, J.) to dismiss the petition, arguing that the notice of non-renewal violated RSC §2524.2(b) by not specifying “the facts necessary” to establish a valid claim for owner occupancy.

Judge Milin dismissed the petition. The Appellate Term, First Department, affirmed Judge Milin, writing:

The underlying notice of nonrenewal, containing conclusory allegations concerning the landlord’s intention to primarily reside in the subject apartment upon tenant’s surrender, was insufficient to serve as a predicate for the within owner occupancy proceeding. Landlord’s notice failed to comply with the specificity requirements of Rent Stabilization Code (9 NYCRR) §2524.2(b), since it merely “tracked the statutory language for nonrenewal upon the ground of owner occupancy . . . without setting forth allegations of fact specific to this proceeding” (internal citations omitted). 1

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]