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Landlord-Tenant. Can I refuse to renew the Month-To-Month Lease of a market-rate apartment to an elderly Tenant with dementia?

Bankruptcy and Debt 9 views 2 answers
My Tenant in a four-family brownstone is now 80 and has suffered from dementia for two years. He has no savings and lives on $1,200 from social security and on food stamps. I consider him a friend and have kept his rents low for 20 years. Six months ago he briefly stopped his meds and had violent hallucinations. Concerned for the safety of tenants and property, I called Adult Protective Services. I also alerted his family and his friend (now his POA). Tenant's family had no interest. His POA instructed me to close the APS file, insisting that he'd find housing for the tenant. The current Agreement, $780/mo. for the parlor floor, terminates April 30, 2015. No word from the Tenant or his POA. This tenancy causes me and other tenants anxiety. What are some options? THANKS SO MUCH.

Attorney Answers

2
Richard J. ChertockReal Estate AttorneyMelville, NY ·
You may cancel a month to month tenancy for any reason on thirty days written notice. If you serve the notice now it will be effective May 30, 2015. If after that the tenant is still in the apartment you can commence a holdover proceeding to evict.
0 upvotes
Steven Smollens ·
Dear Brooklyn Landlord: Once you terminate the tenancy, your lawyer will contact APS and work out an intial court date for the holdover summary proceeding, when APS is in court, so you do not waste more time with an adjournment to an APS date. Commencing a summary proceeding against an elderly disabled person will bring government into the case and likely the court will also appoint a Guardian ad Litem. You and your attorney need to be careful to protect your right as a landlord for an eviction and an upfront and open approach in court that the tenant suffers a disability will tend to work out in your favor. It is a shame your friend's family is leaving his future housing up to the City and his attorney-in-fact seems not to grasp the seriousness of this situation. I am not sure what you meant about the current agreement ending on April 30 (unless you mean a written lease). If there is a lease and the lease ends on April 30 you could be in court with a filed petition as soon as May 1. If the tenancy already is month to month, you need to terminate the tenancy and the end date would be May 31.
0 upvotes

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