Last week, a New York District Court judge ruled that an Upper East Side tenant could break her lease and pay reduced rent because she had complained about a neighbor's cigarette smoking and the landlord failed to take appropriate action to alleviate the second-hand smoke, according to an article today by Amanda Fung at crains.com.
The article said that the ruling was the first of its kind because most smoking-related matters between landlords and tenants do not go to trial, experts said.
In this, the landlord, Upper East Lease Associates, sued a tenant for roughly $12,000 in unpaid rent, the article said, adding that "the tenant claimed that she had complained about second-hand smoke in her apartment and was fed up so she vacated her unit at 215 East 96th Street with four months left on her lease. She had stopped paying rent two months before she moved out."
"When a tenant's smoking results in an intrusion of second-hand smoke into another tenant's apartment, and that tenant complains repeatedly, the landlord runs a financial risk if it fails to take appropriate action. This case involves such a situation," said the court ruling.
"The landlord's failure to take appropriate action, over a period of several months, to rectify a second-hand smoke nuisance, justifies rent abatement, and excuses the tenant from any obligation to pay rent after her constructive eviction."
While the landlord can appeal the decision, it is unlikely because the cost of litigation is more than the actual money sought in the suit, according to observers, the article said.
"'I'm not happy with the decision,' said Jeffrey Maidenbaum of the law firm of Maidenbaum & Associates, who represented the landlord. '...I do feel like we won the battle but lost the war,' he said, adding that while the judge ruled in favor of the landlord by requiring the tenant to pay at least some abated rent for the two months she skipped, the rent lost from the remaining time on the lease cancelled that out.
"While there won't likely be an avalanche of similar cases," the article said, "tenants will begin to use second-hand smoke as an offensive measure against landlords, said Stuart Berg, a partner at Kurzman Eisenberg Corbin & Lever. 'Landlords should take notice and start modifying leases to become stricter in terms of who to lease apartments to.'"
The article said that the ruling was the first of its kind because most smoking-related matters between landlords and tenants do not go to trial, experts said.
In this, the landlord, Upper East Lease Associates, sued a tenant for roughly $12,000 in unpaid rent, the article said, adding that "the tenant claimed that she had complained about second-hand smoke in her apartment and was fed up so she vacated her unit at 215 East 96th Street with four months left on her lease. She had stopped paying rent two months before she moved out."
"When a tenant's smoking results in an intrusion of second-hand smoke into another tenant's apartment, and that tenant complains repeatedly, the landlord runs a financial risk if it fails to take appropriate action. This case involves such a situation," said the court ruling.
"The landlord's failure to take appropriate action, over a period of several months, to rectify a second-hand smoke nuisance, justifies rent abatement, and excuses the tenant from any obligation to pay rent after her constructive eviction."
While the landlord can appeal the decision, it is unlikely because the cost of litigation is more than the actual money sought in the suit, according to observers, the article said.
"'I'm not happy with the decision,' said Jeffrey Maidenbaum of the law firm of Maidenbaum & Associates, who represented the landlord. '...I do feel like we won the battle but lost the war,' he said, adding that while the judge ruled in favor of the landlord by requiring the tenant to pay at least some abated rent for the two months she skipped, the rent lost from the remaining time on the lease cancelled that out.
"While there won't likely be an avalanche of similar cases," the article said, "tenants will begin to use second-hand smoke as an offensive measure against landlords, said Stuart Berg, a partner at Kurzman Eisenberg Corbin & Lever. 'Landlords should take notice and start modifying leases to become stricter in terms of who to lease apartments to.'"
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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