The Loft Law plays a pivotal role in the residential conversion of manufacturing and commercial buildings throughout New York City. Rife with regulatory and procedural nuance, navigation through the Loft Law and the Loft Board’s jurisdiction has burdened owners and tenants alike, often resulting in a years’ long stalemate wherein owners are precluded from collecting rent while tenants reside in structures without any appreciable progress towards legalization.

First introduced in 1982, the Loft Law was most recently amended in 2019 to provide a new vehicle for tenants to assert entitlement to Loft Law coverage by demonstrating the residential use of three or more units within a building for one continuous year during the newly created “window period” of January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2016. This recent amendment has resulted in a new generation of Loft Law coverage applications and the various obligations arising therewith.

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. offers a comprehensive range of services to owners and tenants of interim multiple dwelling buildings subject to the Loft Law, including the prosecution and defense of applications for Loft Law coverage and protected occupancy, navigation through the Loft Board’s registration and legalization process, the negotiation and filing of buy-out agreements resulting in the deregulation of a Loft Law protected unit, and ultimately, release from the Loft Board’s jurisdiction by virtue of the issuance of a final residential certificate of occupancy.

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. litigates matters before the Loft Board, the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, the Supreme Court and the Housing Court, providing well-seasoned trial and appellate representation, including CPLR Article 78 matters where judicial review of a Loft Board agency determination is sought. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. also provides representation before the Department of Buildings and the Board of Standards and Appeals.

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. further advises and liaises with architects and engineers to provide seamless and expeditious legalization of loft buildings to ensure compliance with the Loft Board’s code compliance deadlines and mandate against unreasonable interference during the legalization process. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. also represents parties before the Loft Board in seeking extensions of code compliance deadlines, initiating and/or responding to alternate plan disputes and commencing and/or defending claims of diminished services.

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. additionally performs due diligence review of behalf of potential purchasers of loft buildings to advise as to regulatory issues and the potential transition into the rent stabilization system. Such due diligence review is necessary for purposes of determining both short-term and long-term liabilities associated with the purchase of a building subject to the Loft Board’s jurisdiction.

While the Loft Law may seem a convoluted, if not impermeable, regulatory scheme, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is poised to leverage our significant experience with the Loft Law and real estate litigation at large to protect our clients’ interests and obtain favorable results before any agency, court or tribunal.