How to Protect Your Rent Stabilized Apartment from a Non-Primary Residence Claim

Why TLP made this Class:

One of the most frequently misused grounds for seeking the eviction of a Rent Stabilized tenant in NYC is a claim for non-primary residence.
There may be times in a long tenancy when a Rent Stabilized tenant will be temporarily or periodically absent from his or her apartment, either because the tenant wants to be or because the tenant has to be. For example:
- Maybe a tenant is temporarily absent from the apartment for freelance work in another state or country;
- Maybe a tenant is periodically absent from the apartment to stay at his new girlfriend’s apartment; or
- Maybe a tenant is temporarily absent from the apartment to be with her mother in another state at the end of her mother’s life during palliative care.
Unfortunately, while any of these situations are going on, Rent Stabilized tenants frequently worry that the landlord might make a non-primary residence claim against them.
This is especially true when tenants see changes in their buildings – there is a new landlord, a lot of long-term tenants are moving out, the management is sprucing up the lobby, a representative of the new ownership is asking tenants if they would be interested in moving, a technician is tinkering with smoke detectors in the hallways outside tenants’ apartments that might be hidden cameras.
The purpose of this class is to help Rent Stabilized tenants understand and avoid non-primary residence claims.
This class is attempting to teach tenants how to prevent a non-primary residence claim; this class is not intended to help tenants represent themselves in housing court if they get sued for non-primary residence.
This book and the class it goes with are for New Yorkers who are actually using their Rent Stabilized apartments as their primary residences. We did not make this class for tenants who are not utilizing their Rent Stabilized apartments as their primary residences. We did not make this class for tenants who are only using their Rent Stabilized apartments as pied-a-terre’s, or who are warehousing their apartment for storage or for someday when their kid moves to NYC, or who are subletting and profiteering. When tenants break the rules in these ways, they are taking a unit of affordable housing away from people who truly live here in New York.
Our TLP Instructors have noted, however, that often law-abiding tenants, who do indeed utilize their Rent Stabilized apartments as their primary residences, get unfairly targeted by aggressive landlords. This class is for those people.
This class is only relevant and appropriate for Rent Stabilized tenants.

In this class, you will learn:

What Rent Stabilization means and why your Rent Stabilized apartment Is valuable
What a non-primary residence claim is and whether it is curable
About the important relationship between your lease and a possible non-primary residence claim by your landlord, including that:
- Rent Stabilized leases must be renewed in a very specific manner
- How non-primary residence is a basis for not renewing a Rent Stabilized lease
- The importance of the non-renewal window
- The importance of holding landlord to her legal obligations for a lease renewal
How landlords detect and prove that a tenant is not living in an apartment as her primary residence, including all about the significance of:
- Cameras
- Public records and personal documents (here we closely examine the effect of 20 different types of hardcopy and online personal records on a finding of tenant’s primary residence)
- Subletting
- Tenant’s public social media data
- Building personnel and other tenants of the building
- Private investigators
- Tenant’s intention to return to the apartment
- Tenant’s ability to return to the apartment
- The longevity of the absence from the apartment
- The reason for the absence from the apartment
- The condition of the apartment
- The contents of the apartment
- The entire history of the tenancy
- Tenant’s degree of personal convenience or gain, such as “warehousing” situations
Specific tips to avoid a non-primary residence claim

What will you be able to do after you fully take this class?

If you take this class, you will understand the law regarding non-primary residence claims. You will no longer be guessing or assuming what your rights and responsibilities are in this area.
If you take this class, you will be able to make choices that will help you avoid a non-primary residence claim.
If you take this class, you will understand your specific rights with respect to having your Rent Stabilized lease renewed, including what your rights are with respect to:
- Term choice
- The timing of your renewal
- Lease riders
- Your landlord’s ability to change the terms of your lease
- Your right to add parties to your lease