Notice to cure for illegal sublet - How do you prove the cure?

Real Estate 6 views 1 answers
My family home was flooded by Sandy so I let a friend stay in my stabilized Apt for two months. He had some dogs and presumably someone complained and now right before the holidays he received a ten days notice to cure. He is willing to leave only I still have to help my mother fix the house in Brooklyn. Two questions. 1. If I move back by the date the landlord demands how do I prove that my friend is gone and that I am back? Also, is that the end of the landlords threat? Can he continue the action on other grounds? 2. I need to now legally sublet the apt for a year since my mother is ill and the repairs to the family house will take six months. How long do I have to stay back in my apartment before being allowed to request a sublet and will I still be able to do so after the illegal?

Attorney Answer

1
Steven Smollens ·
Dear how do I prove a cure? Unfortunately, landlord attorneys, often do not recognize the fact of a tenant cure, significantly early enough to prevent the service of the tenancy termination notice. If the notice to cure is based on a claim of an "illegal" sublease, and a breach of lease for subleasing without the landlord's permission, in violation of New York Real Property Law Section 226-b, and of the Rent Stabilization Code and Rent Stabilization Law, the tenant's attorney, if considering making an announcement of a "cure" would not admit to any of the "fact" claims in the Notice to Cure, while stating that the alleged "subtenant" returned to his home and fully vacated and departed. The attorney might offer that person's address and local phone number to allow for verification of the person's real address as well as departure. Even then, it is not likely that the landlord would be headed off. That leaves defending the court proceeding as the best place to settle the argument and end the landlord's contention that you breached the lease. In New York City, there is never certainty that a landlord will "consent" to a sublet request. The real world experience would suggest that a tenant making a bona fide request for consent of the landlord to sublease an apartment, may expect a landlord to take as much time to decide on the request to consent as allowed by statute, and then deny the request. The tenant then must decide to sublease without consent by declaring the landlord's refusal as unreasonable (and thus a court may deem the unreasonable denial as a "consent") or giving up on the sublease. Between the time involved in resolving the current issue involving your friend with the dogs, and the time involved in pursuing a legal consent to sublease, the six months to do the repairs in your mother's house, may be short. Make sure that your attorney addresses all your issues. Good luck.
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