LANDLORD'S PREDICATE NOTICE FACTUALLY INCORRECT AND INSUFFICIENT

2018 NY Slip Op 51711(U), ALEXANDER OCHAKOVSKY, AMELIA OCHAKOVSKY and MARIA OCHAKOVSKY, Petitioners-Landlords-Respondents, v. SHILEN AMIN and ASIFA TIRMIZI, Respondents-Tenants-Appellants, -and- JANE and JOHN DOES, Respondents-Undertenants. 570128/18. Supreme Court, Appellate Term, First Department. Decided November 29, 2018:

"We agree with tenants, however, that the holdover petition must be dismissed because the predicate notice served by landlords was defective. Paragraph 17 of the governing lease agreement authorized landlords to terminate the tenancy on 30 days notice in the event they elected to sell the underlying condominium unit. The April 21, 2017 notice of termination utilized by landlords, purporting to terminate the lease as of May 31, 2017, tersely and incorrectly stated that tenants "d[id] not have a lease agreement" and were "month-to-month" tenants, with no reference to paragraph 17 of the lease, or any other indication that the lease termination was based on landlords' election to sell the unit. Measured against the test of reasonableness in view of the attendant circumstances (see Oxford Towers Co., LLC v Leites, 41 AD3d 144, 144-145 [2007]), the notice was insufficient to serve as a predicate for this holdover proceeding."