It was also available for contact and residence cases involving children, and for injunction proceedings for both alleged victims and perpetrators of domestic violence.
Mr. Belkin said that while landlords may have much to gain by bringing nonprimary residence cases, they may also have much to lose.
The state housing agency that regulates rent-stabilized apartments, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, asked Tishman Speyer to explain its approach to primary residence cases.
More substantial evidence like tax filings, telephone records and voter registration comes into play in what the courts categorize as "nonprimary residence" cases.
Nonprimary residence cases typically entail investigative activity -- one landlord wiretapped the intercom of a building -- and this one had its clandestine aspects.
"There is an extraordinary number of longtime, legitimate tenants who are being pursued in this process and being forced to defend themselves unnecessarily," said Councilman Daniel R. Garodnick, who has asked Tishman Speyer for a moratorium on primary residence cases until December.
However, after adjustment for child's age, sex and residence, cases were 12 times more likely than controls to be HIV positive (OR = 12.4, 95% CI 1.3 to 116.2, p = 0.03) (Table 2).
Despite matching by neighbourhood of residence, cases were somewhat more likely to be Latino and to have lower SES.
In March, Tishman Speyer's accusations against rent-stabilized tenants led Assemblyman Brian P. Kavanagh, whose district includes the two complexes, to introduce a bill that would make a landlord who brings a primary-residence case "in bad faith" liable for the tenant's court costs and lawyers' fees as well as three times the monthly rent or actual damages, whichever is greater.
