Facts: I have a two year lease on the apartment where I live. Due to my deteriorating health, I want to move into an assisted living facility.
Question: Can my landlord insist that I pay the rest of the money due on my lease?
Answer:Depending on your age and the circumstances of your move, you may be able to terminate your lease without penalty. In New York, there is a law (Real Property Law Section 227(a)) that allows senior citizens to terminate their residential lease without any penalty under certain circumstances. The law applies to tenants who are 62 or older or who will turn 62 during the term of their lease. It also applies to the spouses of such individuals who may be named on the lease provided the spouse is living with the senior citizen.
If the senior citizen is relocating to senior citizen housing, an adult care facility or a residential health care facility such as a nursing home, upon proper notice to the landlord, the landlord must release the senior from any liability to pay rent through the balance of the lease term. The same is true if the senior citizen is relocating to subsidized low income housing in order to save money or to the home of a relative. If the senior prepaid his rent, the landlord is obligated to credit back to the senior any rent payments covering the period of time after the effective date of the notice of termination.
Once a senior receives notice that there is an opening for him in senior citizen housing, subsidized housing or in an adult care or residential health care facility, the senior has the right to terminate his lease. Seniors who wish to terminate their lease to move into a relative’s home are able to do so provided they have written certification from a physician stating that, for health reasons, the senior is no longer able to live independently.
In order to terminate a lease, the senior citizen must give the landlord written notice of his intent to terminate. The notice shall be effective no earlier than thirty (30) days after the senior’s next scheduled rent payment. If the next rent payment is due on the first of March, for example, a termination notice sent in February cannot take effect until March 30th. Proof that the senior cannot live independently and that he will be moving in with a relative, or that his admission to a qualified facility is pending, must accompany the notice that is sent to the landlord.
Landlords that fail to recognize the right of a senior citizen to terminate his lease and who do not allow a senior to remove his belongs from the rental unit when the termination notice becomes effective may face fines up to $1,000 and/or jail time. In addition, landlords that attempt to enforce lease provisions that serve as a waiver of a senior’s right to terminate his lease will find that such provisions are void as against public policy. The right to terminate a residential lease under the circumstances set forth above cannot be waived.
This article first appeared in the February 3, 2011 issue of the Times Beacon Record Newspapers.
Linda M. Toga of The Law Offices of Linda M. Toga, P.C. is an East Setauket, New York attorney with a general law practice focusing on estate planning, real estate, marital planning, small business services and litigation.