Residential landlord and tenant law is a much more difficult area of law than commercial landlord and tenant law. A fundamental difference between the commercial and residential paradigms is that in commercial landlord and tenant cases the concept of “freedom of contract” is given great deference by the courts. In the residential context, however, statutes and case law have developed restrictions to prevent a landlord from overreaching in its dealings with a tenant. Therefore, many of the provisions of a residential lease are, essentially, meaningless. Moreover, in the residential realm there is constant interplay with the various administrative agencies that regulate residential tenancies in the City of New York.
We do NOT have a volume landlord and tenant practice. In other words, we do not have hundreds of cases going at once; we do not spend all day running around Housing Court writing carbon paper stipulations. We are the place that people, both landlords and tenants, come to when they have a serious landlord and tenant problem and need real analysis and results.