Under the NYC Rent Stabilization and Rent Control Laws, a tenant is usually allowed to remain in the apartment so long as he or she pays the rent, abides by the terms of the lease, and refrains from unlawful activity or committing any nuisance. However, the tenant is required to use the apartment as his or her "primary residence', i.e. the place where he or she lives most of the time, or at the very least, that he lives there more of the time than he lives anywhere else (e.g. a "traveling salesman" type of situation).
While a tenant is allowed to spend time at a girl friend or boy friend's apartment or even to have a "summer home" in the Hampton's or a "winter home" in Florida, if the tenant spends most of the year living somewhere else the nyc apartment will most likely no longer be considered to be his primary residence.
At a trial the Housing Judge will consider documentary evidence of the tenant's address, such as driver's license, voter registration, income tax returns, credit card statements, etc. The landlord may try to call other tenants, the doorman, super, etc. as witnesses to say that they seldom see the tenant. The landlord may also subpoena electric bills and telephone bills. It will be hard for the tenant to claims that he has been living in the apartment if the electric bills show no usage of electricity.
In non primary residence cases, the landlord is entitled to conduct a pretrial deposition of the tenant.
Non primary residence cases are best handled by experienced landlord/tenant attorneys. If you are interested in discussing retaining me to handle your Housing Court case, please call for a free telephone consultation.
