Key SRO Issue Will Go Before New York State Court of Appeals

NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The legal debate over whether squatters living in Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels can be evicted is going to the State's highest court.

In Branic International Realty v. Pitt, the Appellate Term, First Department unanimously held, in accordance with well settled law, that a recipient of emergency housing benefits subsidized through New York City's Human Resources Administration (HRA), who had been placed in Branic's SRO as an HRA client, and who refused to relocate to another building at the HRA's expense after HRA terminated its agreement with Branic, was a mere licensee entitling Branic to evict him. However, in a decision dated April 16, 2013, the Appellate Division, First Department reversed the Appellate Term and held that even though the recipient of such housing benefits had no landlord-tenant relationship with Branic, had no obligation to pay rent to Branic, had no lease with Branic, and had never paid any rent to Branic, nevertheless the recipient could permanently remain in the building as a "permanent tenant" protected by the Rent Stabilization Code, merely because he had been in possession for more than six months.

The landlord was represented by Ronald J. Rosenberg and Lesley A. Reardon, of Rosenberg Calica & Birney LLP in Garden City. Rosenberg stated, "We applaud the Appellate Division's August 6^th decision granting us permission to have their decision reviewed by the New York State Court of Appeals, New York's highest Court. The Court of Appeals will now determine if the Appellate Division decision, which changed the centuries-old law in New York and now entitles a squatter, who never paid any rent, and never had a lease or any other agreement with the Landlord, to have permanent occupancy rights merely because the squatter was in possession for more than six months, was correct. We look forward to presenting our case to the Court of Appeals to correct this dangerous and unprecedented decision."

SOURCE Rosenberg Calica & Birney LLP