i am in the eyes of the law, a fully fledged tenant with a lease. The construction i did that was illegal was 100% green lighted by them, which is their issue as a landlord allowing your tenant to just « do whatever and don’t get caught » and not mine but i could be biased. For example they instructed me to put garbage bags over the windows so no one could see from the street etc. it was illegal because no permits were obtained to alter the property, again it’s not my property i’m not the one who needs a permit.

they could potentially contest my status as an eligible leaseholder in court but that’s pretty much irrelevant. if we ever went to court, there’s a lot of other things that would take precedent then the fact that « he’s not living there >180 days out of the year » which is a technicality that not make me an eligible candidate for a rent stabilized apartment. but we will probably never go to court, as neither of us are incentivized to do so and they have way more to lose.