Press & News

Dennis Greenstein Quoted in The New York Times
01/03/2006

An article in the December 25, 2005 issue of The New York Times quoted New York real estate partner Dennis Greenstein. The article, “Free-Market Tenants in a Conversion Plan,” explores the rights of rental tenants in a building which is being converted to a co-op. Under New York’s rent control laws, rent-regulated tenants in a building undergoing a conversion under the rules of a noneviction plan could stay in a co-op building as rental tenants. The protection afforded to tenants in apartments which are not rent-regulated becomes effective only after the date on which a building’s sponsor’s submitted plan is declared effective. On this date, non-rent-regulated tenants are entitled can remain in the building indefinitely without being subjected to “unconscionable” rent increases. The article concludes:

“Dennis Greenstein, a Manhattan real estate lawyer, said that if a nonregulated tenant is offered a renewal lease before a plan becomes effective – event if the lease is for less than a year – he or she should probably take it.

`You just might get lucky,’ Mr. Greenstein said, `and be in occupancy on the date the plan is declared effective.’”