Shareholder-Tenant Gets 100% Maintenance Abatement

Co-op shareholder tenant sought 100 percent maintenance abatement and other remedies against landlord co-op corporation. She claimed that her apartment was uninhabitable and said no trial was required on the issues. The court ruled against tenant, who appealed and won in part. A trial was needed on tenant’s claims for breach of warranty of habitability, breach of the covenant of quiet enjoyment, eviction, negligence, and whether landlord was responsible for causing the damage to tenant’s apartment and for failing to make required repairs in a timely manner. However, clearly the apartment in its present condition couldn’t be safely inhabited. So tenant was entitled to a 100 percent maintenance abatement, as authorized by her proprietary lease. Tenant didn’t waive any maintenance abatement by accepting advance payment from landlord’s insurer and applying it to alternate living expenses. And tenant agreed to deduct the amount of all advance payments from their eventual recovery from that insurer.

Goldstone v. Gracie Terrace Apartment Corporation: NYLJ, 5/13/10, p. 37, col. 2 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; Tom, JP, Sweeny, Moskowitz, DeGrasse, Manzanet-Daniels, JJ)