BBG Secures Summary Judgment Win for Condo Board Holding Condo Owner Liable for Tenant Misconduct
BBG recently secured summary judgment on behalf of a condo board against a unit owner, including an award of attorneys’ fees in a case in which the unit owner leased her apartment to unruly tenants who for months engaged in objectionable and threatening behavior towards other residents and staff. In response, the board sued for injunctive relief and was forced to hire private security personnel and expend legal fees solely as a result of the tenants’ behavior. The board assessed the security and legal charges to the unit owner as common charges under the by-laws, asserting that her failure to stop the nuisance and take sufficient action, as the board took in retaining private security and commencing an injunction action, constituted a breach of the by-laws and house rules. The unit owner refused to pay, claiming that she was not responsible for the actions of her tenants and not liable for the Board’s legal fees.
The court fully accepted BBG’s arguments that the unit owner was responsible for her tenants’ behavior under the by-laws and rules, even though the unit owner did not condone the tenants’ behavior and even tried to evict them by hiring her own lawyer, terminating the lease, and commencing a holdover proceeding in housing court. This, BBG argued, was insufficient as it did not stop the nuisance. Second, the court accepted BBG’s argument that the by-laws allowed for the recovery of attorneys’ fees even though the relevant sections did not specifically mention “attorneys’ fees” but, we argued, implied attorneys’ fees based on the language of by-laws and prior case law interpreting nearly identical language.
This case reinforces the power of condo boards to act swiftly in defense of their residents and recover costs when forced to do so, clarifies that owners cannot passively rely on eviction proceedings when immediate action is needed to stop a nuisance and expands recoupment of attorneys’ fees despite the by-laws not explicitly referencing recovery for those fees.
BBG attorneys Israel Katz and Mark Antar secured the victory for the client Condo Board.
