Landlord of Unregistered Building Can Maintain Nonrent-Based Case

Facts: Landlord sued to evict month-to-month tenant after delivering a 30-day termination notice. Landlord lived in the building, which he stated was a two-family house. A housing court inspection showed there was a third, illegal apartment in the house. So the house was an unregistered multiple dwelling. For this reason, the court dismissed the case. Landlord appealed. Court: Landlord wins. Multiple Dwelling Law section 325 requires registration of multiple dwellings. The penalty for not registering is that landlord can't collect rent. In this case, landlord's eviction case wasn't based on nonpayment of rent. It was a holdover proceeding based on termination of the tenancy. So landlord wasn't barred by law from seeking eviction. The case was reinstated and sent back to the housing court.

Czerwinski v. Hayes: NYLJ, 4/6/05, p. 27, col. 1 (App. T. 2 Dept.; Pesce, PJ, Patterson, Golia, JJ)