What Happened: A landlord served a funeral home tenant with a notice to cure for installing a scissor lift and other alterations without the landlord’s prior written consent. Two years later, the landlord rejected the tenant’s attempt to exercise its option to purchase the premises on the ground that the tenant had breached the lease. The tenant sued and the landlord sued back. The landlord moved for dismissal of the tenant’s claim and summary judgment on its counterclaims. The court granted the motion and ordered the tenant to pay the landlord nearly $100,000 in damages.   

Ruling: The New York appeals court reversed the ruling and damages award. 

Reasoning: Under New York case law, tenants are allowed to make non-structural alterations necessary to carry out their business without the landlord’s consent. This is true even if the lease bans alterations without the landlord’s consent, provided that the alterations: 

• “Are reasonably necessary to enable the tenant to use the premises in the manner set forth in the lease”; and
• Don’t harm the landlord’s “reversion” interest.  

Did these conditions apply to this case? As the party moving for summary judgment, the landlord in this case had to show that these conditions didn’t apply to prove that the tenant violated the lease by making alterations without consent. Since the landlord didn’t meet this burden, the case had to go to trial. So, the lower court shouldn’t have awarded the landlord summary judgment and damages. 

• Yorktown Funeral Home, LLC v. Kamitis, Inc., 2025 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2836, 2025 NY Slip Op 02812, 2025 LX 84467