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Posted by BB on February 26, 2002 at 10:53:24:

In Reply to: help with breaking a NYC lease posted by Jack on February 25, 2002 at 14:56:34:

Not a lawyer, but I would stop paying. It does not take more than 2 months to rent out an apartment in NY! With you paying for an empty space the LL has no reason nor motivation to find new tenants. Although you left your lease early, you have shown good faith in paying. The LL has a duty to "mitigate damages". Below is a case I found under "Housing Court" Decisions. You may want to search the decisions by trying various search terms: mitigation damages is a good start...Good luck!

Case Caption:

Solow Management Corp. v. Lovelac

Issues/Legal Principles:

Where landlord agrees to seek to re-let apartment, it must act in good faith in seeking a new tenant.

Keywords:

mitigation of damages

Court:

Civil Court, County of New York

Judge:

Hon. Debra Samuels

Date:

June 28, 2000

Citation:

NYLJ, page 27, col. 6

Referred Statutes:

None cited

Summary:

Landlord sued tenant in Civil Court for rent arrears. The tenant, who had moved from the residential premises, had entered into an agreement with the landlord prior to moving in which the landlord agreed to attempt to re-let the apartment on the condition that the tenant remove all of his possessions from the apartment and pay any costs in connection with the re-letting of the apartment. The landlord claimed that it could not re-let the apartment and sued the tenant for the remainder of the term under the lease. The landlord then moved for summary judgment. The Court denied the motion. It found that there was a question of fact as to whether the landlord had made a good faith effort to re-let the premises where it sought a rent increase of 22% to 44% for the apartment upon re-letting. Court also found that there was a question of fact regarding tenant’s defense of laches since the landlord waited seven months to sue under the lease.

• June 2000 Housing Descisions

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Comments:
: Not a lawyer, but I would stop paying. It does not take more than 2 months to rent out an apartment in NY! With you paying for an empty space the LL has no reason nor motivation to find new tenants. Although you left your lease early, you have shown good faith in paying. The LL has a duty to "mitigate damages". Below is a case I found under "Housing Court" Decisions. You may want to search the decisions by trying various search terms: mitigation damages is a good start...Good luck!

: Case Caption:

: Solow Management Corp. v. Lovelac 

: Issues/Legal Principles: 

: Where landlord agrees to seek to re-let apartment, it must act in good faith in seeking a new tenant. 

: Keywords: 

: mitigation of damages 

: Court:

: Civil Court, County of New York 

: Judge:

: Hon. Debra Samuels 

: Date: 

: June 28, 2000 

: Citation:

: NYLJ, page 27, col. 6 

: Referred Statutes:

: None cited

: Summary:

: Landlord sued tenant in Civil Court for rent arrears. The tenant, who had moved from the residential premises, had entered into an agreement with the landlord prior to moving in which the landlord agreed to attempt to re-let the apartment on the condition that the tenant remove all of his possessions from the apartment and pay any costs in connection with the re-letting of the apartment. The landlord claimed that it could not re-let the apartment and sued the tenant for the remainder of the term under the lease. The landlord then moved for summary judgment. The Court denied the motion. It found that there was a question of fact as to whether the landlord had made a good faith effort to re-let the premises where it sought a rent increase of 22% to 44% for the apartment upon re-letting. Court also found that there was a question of fact regarding tenant’s defense of laches since the landlord waited seven months to sue under the lease. 


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