New York City has the most complex residential and commercial landlord-tenant laws in the world. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. provides a full range of services, assisting its clients in navigating the complexities of these laws. Starting from when a client first considers the purchase of a new property, to taking title, and through to the day-to-day management of that building, the firm dedicates itself to protecting the clients’ interests and financially increasing the value of their investment. The firm strives first to prevent litigation, but when it happens, to pursue it aggressively to meet clients’ goals through favorable settlements, facilitated eviction, and aggressive litigation technique, both in the preparation and in the conduct of trials and appeals.
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. provides one of the most outstanding landlord-tenant practices in New York City. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C is one of four law firms with landlord-tenant practices in the entire state of New York to earn an AV® Martindale-Hubbell rating, Super Lawyers honors with a Top 100 recognition, Best Lawyers awards for the firm and attorneys, selected among America’s Top 100 Bet-The-Company Litigators, and selection into the Registry of Preeminent Lawyers as well as the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is the only law firm in New York City with landlord-tenant practice attorneys named by the internationally esteemed Chambers & Partners among “New York’s Leading Real Estate Lawyers. ” Chambers & Partners noted that Adam Leitman Bailey makes his “debut in the rankings following enthusiastic praise for his expertise in landlord and tenant litigation,” and hailed him as “a tenacious and confident litigator who is quick-witted in court and respected by the judges.” The ranking agency noted that Adam Leitman Bailey participated in substantial “real estate litigat (ion) with substantial expertise handling high-stakes disputes and complex landlord-tenant disputes. Real Estate Weekly also noted that “Adam Leitman Bailey has made a name for himself with his success winning cases in the courtroom.”
The Commercial Observer named Adam Leitman Bailey as one of New York’s Most Powerful Real Estate Attorneys. Real Estate Weekly recognized it as, “one of the most respected commercial real estate attorneys in not only New York City, but arguably the country. A New York State judge wrote that one Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. attorney “was the best trial lawyer I saw in my nine years as a Judge in New York City.” A New York State judge, Kings County, stated that he had known an Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. attorney for fifteen years and “that he is a brilliant lawyer and innovative who always worked zealously on behalf of his clients.”
The collective experience of Adam Leitman Bailey’s team has been responsible for winning landmark decisions in real estate law. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. attorneys have won over a thousand cases in housing court, including over 400 appellate court cases, many at the highest court, the Court of Appeals. In addition to participating in some of the most important landlord-tenant decisions during the past decade, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. attorneys have written some 90 books on landlord-tenant law, including encyclopedias and the Housing Court Reporter, a thirty year collection, organization, and analysis of over 50,000 landlord-tenant cases used by most regular housing court practitioners and all landlord-tenant judges.
A few recent decisions making new law and creative victories in favor of landlords have included:
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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains Restraining Order to Lock Out Violent Illegal Short-Term Rental Operators with New York Police Department Assistance
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains Restraining Order to Lock Out Violent Illegal Short-Term Rental Operators with New York Police Department Assistance
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. secured an emergency temporary restraining order for its landlord client before Christmas, obtaining permission from a Supreme Court Judge to change the locks and seal the doors to three apartments with New York Police Department (NYPD) assistance to keep out violent illegal short-term rental operators. First, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. secured a temporary restraining order enjoining a criminal enterprise operating a multiple-apartment illegal short-term rental scheme in our client’s Manhattan building. This order prohibited the tenants from advertising...
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Thanks to the Beatles, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Uses Aggressive and Creative Tactic to Recover Money Judgment for Landlord
Thanks to the Beatles, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Uses Aggressive and Creative Tactic to Recover Money Judgment for Landlord
The landlord, represented by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., started an eviction case against a delinquent tenant. The landlord prevailed; the tenant was evicted and the landlord received a money judgment in the amount of rent owed. It was determined that the tenant was unemployed and had no discoverable assets. After doing due diligence, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. learned that the tenant planned on selling a suit worn by John Lennon and they took action to recover money...
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Knowledge of Finer Intricacies of Complicated J-51 Overcharge Laws and Formulas Result in Massive Savings for Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Landlord-Client
Knowledge of Finer Intricacies of Complicated J-51 Overcharge Laws and Formulas Result in Massive Savings for Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Landlord-Client
New York City owners who participated in the J-51 tax exemption and abatement program have faced a surge of class action cases over the last five years that nonprofit tenant advocacy groups have brought. The crux of these class actions’ claims was that owners should suffer a rollback of rent to the rates charged years ago and return supposedly overpaid rent to the tenants. Underlying this was the claim that owners did not return apartments to rent stabilization following the...
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Miracle on Dunbury Place: The Story of the Only Tenant in Suffolk County Evicted After Being Approved for ERAP Payments
Miracle on Dunbury Place: The Story of the Only Tenant in Suffolk County Evicted After Being Approved for ERAP Payments
During the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, the courts have been handing out stays on evictions like it is candy at a Shriner’s parade. The courts do not seem to care if the tenant has not paid a dime or if the landlord is being severely hurt by the stay. When the landlord is a high profile person, it’s all the worse. Courts simply assume that such people can afford to take the hit of having a deadbeat tenant. Such...
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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains a Preliminary Injunction and an Order of Contempt Against Holdover Licensees Illegally Using a New York City Apartment as a Single Room Occupancy Dwelling and for Short-Term Occupancy
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains a Preliminary Injunction and an Order of Contempt Against Holdover Licensees Illegally Using a New York City Apartment as a Single Room Occupancy Dwelling and for Short-Term Occupancy
In a New York County Supreme Court ejectment action, Adam Leitman Bailey P.C., prevailed on a motion for a temporary restraining order, then obtained an order of contempt against the non-complying occupants based on their illegal and dangerous use of a Class A apartment as a de facto single room occupancy dwelling and short-term rental enterprise. The rent stabilized tenant of record of the apartment recently died, leaving behind multiple unauthorized occupants. Seeking to recover possession of the apartment, Adam...
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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Tenant’s Rent Illegality Claims
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Tenant’s Rent Illegality Claims
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., in a residential non-payment proceeding in New York County Housing Court, won partial summary judgment on its prima facie case and obtained dismissal of the tenant’s defenses and counterclaims of overcharge and rent illegality. The tenant moved into the apartment in the mid-1980s and signed two successive commercial leases for use of the apartment as a quasi-medical office. Five years later, the tenant commenced a Supreme Court action against the prior landlord. The tenant claimed overcharge,...
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Bet the Skyscraper Negotiation
Bet the Skyscraper Negotiation
Between COVID-19 and the government’s shut down of the city of New York and its real estate, the disaster that hit New York had never been seen before. For the skyscraper that is the subject of this case study, almost 50 percent of the commercial tenants stopped paying rent or completely moved out of the building and terminated their leases. For those tenants not paying rent, many of the leases had self-help clauses that allowed Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to...
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Headache Tenant’s Harassment Claims Squashed by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.
Headache Tenant’s Harassment Claims Squashed by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.
Pitted against a headache rent-stabilized tenant that filed a complaint with the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (“DHCR”) seeking damages for, inter alia, harassment, and invasion of privacy, a landlord, who had recently sold the building after this complaint was filed, retained Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to defend it in the case. In light of the tenant’s harassment complaint, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client had to put up a sizable sum into escrow to protect the subsequent purchaser from...
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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Makes New Law, Evicting Long-Term Nuisance Tenant
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Makes New Law, Evicting Long-Term Nuisance Tenant
In Cabrini Terrace Joint Venture v. O’Brien, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. evicted a forty-year tenant who had been creating a nuisance for his neighbors through his disgusting housekeeping practices. Located in upper Manhattan, Charles O’Brien’s apartment was atrocious, the site of piles of clothing and other debris, and host to hundreds of vermin- some of whom escaped to invade neighbors’ apartments as well. The smell erupting from the apartment was immediately apparent and nauseating as one stepped off the elevator. But,...
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The Case of the Tenant Who Evicted Herself: A Chronic Nonpayment Holdover Story
The Case of the Tenant Who Evicted Herself: A Chronic Nonpayment Holdover Story
The landlord of a rent-stabilized apartment in Brooklyn for years could not collect rent from his tenant without starting a nonpayment case. After enduring seven nonpayment cases over a span of two years, the chronic nonpayment holdover case was ripe for the coup de grâce. The key to the victory of this case was the preparation and attention to detail from the date the owner bought the building. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. counseled the landlord to document his consistent and...
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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains Injunction Against Serial Illegal Short-Term Rental Operators
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains Injunction Against Serial Illegal Short-Term Rental Operators
Representing a New York landlord, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. obtained an injunction in a Supreme Court ejectment action against a group of illegal short-term rental operators who commandeered multiple apartments in our client’s building. Several months ago, a group of straw tenants, led by their ringleader, submitted a series of fraudulent apartment applications, and obtained leases for four apartments in the building. The plot quickly unraveled when none of the named tenants moved in. Instead, they furnished the apartments and...
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Demolition Proceeds After Criminal Operation Is Uncovered and Leads to Quick Surrender of Apartment
Demolition Proceeds After Criminal Operation Is Uncovered and Leads to Quick Surrender of Apartment
A landlord needed all tenants out of its building within 30 days in order to begin demolition. When a tenant was informed that her lease had expired and would not be renewed, she had her attorney send a letter stating a vacate date would only proceed upon payment of a certain sum of money. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. prepared the petition to begin eviction proceedings. The landlord had not expected any problems with vacating the free market tenants from the...
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Fort Washington Holdings, LLC v. Maurice Abbott
Fort Washington Holdings, LLC v. Maurice Abbott
Fort Washington Holdings, LLC v Maurice Abbott
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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Vindicated Victory Against Long Term Nuisance Tenant – Appellate Term, First Department
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Vindicated Victory Against Long Term Nuisance Tenant – Appellate Term, First Department
APR 29, 2009 SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, FIRST DEPARTMENT A February 2009 Term McKeon, P.J., Schoenfeld, Heitler, JJ. Cabrini Terrace Joint Venture, Petitioner-Landlord-Respondent, -against- Charles O’Brien, Respondent-Tenant-Appellant. NY County Clerk’s No. 570255/08 Calendar No. 08-453 Tenant appeals from a final judgment of the Civil Court of the City of New York, New York County (Gerald Lebovits, J.), entered March 7, 2008, after a non-jury trial, which awarded possession to landlord in a proceeding. Per Curiam. Final judgment (Gerald Lebovits, J.)...
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By Failing to Give Adequate Notice of Repairs, Tenant Loses Right to an Abatement
By Failing to Give Adequate Notice of Repairs, Tenant Loses Right to an Abatement
When a landlord sought Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s help after his tenant withheld rent for seven months, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. defended the landlord and prevailed in the case. In this case, a tenant withheld rent for seven months due to defective conditions in his apartment, including: cracks in the bedroom walls, pealing paint by the radiator and in the bathroom, exposed gas and plumbing pipes in the kitchen, no use of his stove, and accumulation of...
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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Case of First Impression As the First Landlord to be Awarded Attorney Fees Under the Tenant Anti-Harassment Act
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Case of First Impression As the First Landlord to be Awarded Attorney Fees Under the Tenant Anti-Harassment Act
New York Law JournalBy: Scott E. Mollen May 15th, 2013 Landlord-Tenant—Tenant’s Harassment Claims Dismissed—Legal Fees Awarded to Landlord—Tenant Had Denied Landlord Access for Inspection and Repair The petitioner tenant had commenced a harassment proceeding against the landlord, alleging that the landlord “either used force, threatened the use of force or implied the use of force; repeatedly brought court cases against her for no good reason; and repeatedly caused or permitted acts or omissions that substantially interfered with or disturbed her comfort, peace or...
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Fast Tracking the Non-Payment Proceeding
Fast Tracking the Non-Payment Proceeding
The Rent Demand is ready for client signature within twenty-four hours of receipt of all information needed to start the case. Service of the Rent Demand is completed within four days of receipt of the signed notice. The Notice of Petition and the Petition is drafted and sent to client for verification within twenty-four hours of expiration of the Rent Demand. Service of the Notice of Petition and the Petition is completed within four days of receipt of the signed...
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How to Win A Chronic Nonpayment Case
How to Win A Chronic Nonpayment Case
Landlords waste tons of money starting nonpayment cases and paying lawyers to prosecute these cases only to have the tenant pay on the eve of eviction and default again the very next month or months later. Most of the time, the legal fees and court costs are not reimbursed because these cases are settled. Therefore, it is essential for landlords of rent-stabilized units to spotlight frequently delinquent accounts and prepare them for chronic nonpayment actions. When done properly, this will...
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