REFUSAL TO RENEW MAY REQUIRE 30 DAYS

Typically, when a regulated a rent-stabilized tenant fails or refuses to sign a duly presented renewal lease, that tenancy may be terminated upon the service of a 15-day notice of termination. [9 NYCRR 2504.3(c)(1) (ETPR); 9 NYCRR 2524.2(c)(1) (RSC)] But a case decided by the Appellate Term, 9th and 10th Judicial Districts, presents an interesting complication or wrinkle to that general rule.
If a regulated tenant remains in possession of an apartment post-expiration of a lease and a landlord continues to accept the last regulated rent (before offering a lease renewal), a 30-day notice of termination, rather than a 15-day notice will be required.
In Jessamy v. Waltonsteed, Florence Waltonseed's lease expired in November 2003, and it apparently took the landlord, Johnnie Jessamy, some nine months -- until August 2004 -- to present a lease renewal. In the interim, Waltonseed continued to pay the rent reserved in her expired lease.
When Waltonseed refused to sign the lease renewal, the landlord served a 15-day notice of termination, started a holdover proceeding in the City Court of New Rochelle, Westchester County, and, after trial, was awarded a final judgment of possession as against the tenant. (In order words, the tenant lost the case.)
On appeal, the Appellate Term reversed, noting that the landlord was first required to end the "month-to-month" tenancy that had been created by the post-lease expiration acceptance of rent. As the court observed:

Having continued to pay rent after the expiration of her lease, tenant remained in possession as a month-to-month tenant, and landlord's subsequent service upon her of a 15-day notice, rather than a month's notice, as a predicate to the commencement of this proceeding, was insufficient to terminate this tenancy ... Accordingly, the final judgment in favor of landlord must be reversed and the petition dismissed ....