Tenant Can't Block Eviction After Lease Terminated

An owner intending “to demolish the building or rehabilitate an entire floor” can terminate its lease by giving the tenant 60 days' prior notice. Here, the owner wanted to expand the building into the tenant's space. So on April 20, the owner notified the tenant that the lease would terminate on June 30. The tenant refused to move out. On July 13, the tenant asked the court to block the owner from evicting it by issuing an injunction.

A New York court refused to issue the injunction because the lease had already terminated. The court said, “If [the tenant] wished to challenge [the owner's] right to terminate the lease, it had to do so prior to the lease being terminated.” To get an injunction, the tenant would have to convince the court that the owner wasn't entitled to evict it. But the tenant couldn't do that because it was relying on rights granted under a terminated lease, noted the court. The court had no power to revive the lease. So there was no longer a viable dispute between the parties [B.M.G. Bagels, Inc. v. Vorillas Properties LLC].