THE REASONABLENESS OF THE COSTS OF TEMPORARILY RELOCATING A TENANT FORCED TO VACATE AN UNINHABITABLE BUILDING MUST BE DETERMINED IN A LIEN FORECLOSURE PROCEEDING, THE LIEN CANNOT BE SUMMARILY DISCHARGED BY FINDING THE COSTS AS STATED IN THE NOTICE OF LIEN FACIALLY UNREASONABLE.
The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Garcia, resolving a conflict between the 1st and 2nd Departments, determined a dispute about the reasonableness of the costs of temporarily relocating a tenant forced to vacate an uninhabitable building, as stated in a Notice of Lien, is not subject to summary disposition but rather must be resolved in a foreclosure proceeding. The 1st Department had erroneously held that such a lien imposed by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) could be summarily discharged if the relocation costs stated in the Notice of Lien were deemed unreasonable:
Facial invalidity [of a Notice of Lien] occurs only in limited circumstances not present here. In both cases at issue, the notices of lien contained all required elements under Lien Law § 9 and Administrative Code § 26-305 (4) (a) and were properly filed. While summary discharge is proper when a notice of lien includes non-lienable expenses … , the notices of lien here demonstrated no such defect. The notices stated that they sought “hotel expenses,” “administration costs,” and “relocation costs,” which sufficed to meet the requirement that the notice contain a statement of “the labor performed or materials furnished.” Rather than challenge those categories of expenses as “lienable,” both [property owners] object to the amount claimed for such expenses. Such a dispute is not properly resolved through a summary discharge proceeding. Rivera v Department of Hous. Preserv. & Dev. of the City of N.Y., 2017 NY Slip Op 02587, CtApp 4-4-17
LANDLORD-TENANT (NYC, THE REASONABLENESS OF THE COSTS OF TEMPORARILY RELOCATING A TENANT FORCED TO VACATE AN UNINHABITABLE BUILDING MUST BE DETERMINED IN A LIEN FORECLOSURE PROCEEDING, THE LIEN CANNOT BE SUMMARILY DISCHARGED BY FINDING THE COSTS AS STATED IN THE NOTICE OF LIEN FACIALLY UNREASONABLE)/LIEN LAW (NYC, THE REASONABLENESS OF THE COSTS OF TEMPORARILY RELOCATING A TENANT FORCED TO VACATE AN UNINHABITABLE BUILDING MUST BE DETERMINED IN A LIEN FORECLOSURE PROCEEDING, THE LIEN CANNOT BE SUMMARILY DISCHARGED BY FINDING THE COSTS AS STATED IN THE NOTICE OF LIEN FACIALLY UNREASONABLE)/MUNICIPAL LAW (NYC, THE REASONABLENESS OF THE COSTS OF TEMPORARILY RELOCATING A TENANT FORCED TO VACATE AN UNINHABITABLE BUILDING MUST BE DETERMINED IN A LIEN FORECLOSURE PROCEEDING, THE LIEN CANNOT BE SUMMARILY DISCHARGED BY FINDING THE COSTS AS STATED IN THE NOTICE OF LIEN FACIALLY UNREASONABLE)