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Tenant was in a month-to-month tenancy arrangement with Landlord in a Brooklyn apartment. There are more than 6 units in the building.

Tenant gave written notice on 11/5/08 of his intent to move out on 11/28/08. In the same letter giving notice, Tenant inquired of Landlord whether and how he would be returning the 1M security deposit to the Tenant. Landlord stated that he would return the security deposit after a walk-through on the move-out date.

On the move-out date, the Landlord performed the walk-through and again stated that he would return the security deposit. He requested a forwarding address to which he could send the security deposit, which the Tenant provided by email that same day.

Several weeks passed without the return of the security deposit. The Tenant emailed and left voicemails for the Landlord inquiring when he could expect the return of the security deposit. The Landlord did not respond. To this point, no accounting for the security deposit was ever provided to the Tenant.

In April, after a sixth inquiry from the Tenant, the Landlord responded that he had kept the security deposit as recovery of unpaid rent for the month of December. Landlord argued that because Tenant failed to give 30 days’ notice, Tenant was conditionally obligated to pay December rent. Because the Landlord attempted to lease the apartment for December and was unable to do so, the condition was resolved and the December rent was due.

Question 1: Was Tenant required by law (either statute or case law) to provide 30 days’ notice to Landlord? If so, does anyone know what the relevant statue or case law is? RPL 232-b seems to require that within NYC, the landlord is required to give 30 days’ notice to terminate a month-to-month tenancy. However, 232-b does not provide the same requirement of the tenant. 232-c seems to require a 30 day notice of both tenant and landlord, however 232-c explicitly scopes-out NYC.

Question 2: If Tenant was required to give 30 days’ notice, do the Landlord’s actions (written and verbal agreement to return the security deposit; not mentioning the 30 day notice period or December rent until April) amount to an implied agreement to waive the notice requirement? Can Landlord be otherwise estopped from applying the security deposit toward unpaid December rent if Tenant relied on the Landlord’s statements w/r/t the security deposit before confirming his move-out date?

Note: I searched and found a couple of similar posts. However, the fact pattern here is different in at least one important way. Plus, some of the advice with respect to what the law says was inconsistent. I’d like clarification if you have any. Direction to specific statutes or case law preferred.