408 EAST 10TH STREET TENANTS ASSOCIATION v. “John Doe,” et al., Defendants. (2014)

Order and judgment (one paper), Supreme Court, New York County (Cynthia Kern, J.), entered September 17, 2013, which granted plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment, declared null and void, ab initio, a lease entered into by defendant Charo Nespral for an apartment in a building owned by the City of New York, and denied defendant's cross motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint and declaring the lease effective, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

The motion court properly granted plaintiff tenant association's motion for summary judgment. Because the subject building is owned by the City of New, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development's prior written approval was required for plaintiff to enter into the subject lease with defendant. As plaintiff concedes, written approval was never obtained. Thus, the lease is “invalid and unenforceable” (Parsa v. State of New York, 64 N.Y.2d 143, 147 [1984]; see 28 RCNY § 34–04[b] ). The motion court properly declined to estop plaintiff from asserting the invalidity of the lease (see Advanced Refractory Tech. v. Power Auth. of State of N.Y., 81 N.Y.2d 670, 677–678 [1993]; Taylor v. New York State Div. of Hous. & Community Renewal, 73 AD3d 634 [1st Dept 2010] ).

We have considered defendant's remaining contentions and find them unavailing.