Appeal by tenant from a final judgment of the District Court, Suffolk County (M. Fitzgibbons, J.), entered December 11, 2002, awarding landlord possession and the sum of $880.

Final judgment unanimously affirmed without costs.

In this holdover proceeding, the court properly ruled in landlord's favor. Tenant claimed that the eviction was in retaliation for his complaint made to a governmental agency on September 25, 2002. However, prior thereto, on September 12, 2002, the landlord wrote to tenant that it would not renew his lease which terminated on October 31, 2002 because the building was being converted into a cooperative and tenant had not responded to offers to sell him the subject apartment. Accordingly, it is apparent that the landlord's refusal to renew was not in retaliation to the tenant's filing of a complaint (Real Property Law § 223-b [5]).

It is noted that a new tenancy was not created because the landlord never accepted rent after the lease ended (Real Property Law § 232-c).
Decision Date: December 10, 2003