Williamsburg artists evicted from lofts

A group of Williamsburg artists who were appealing eviction from the live-work loft at 338 Berry Street lost their 16 month-long legal battle yesterday, the Brooklyn Paper reported. There are seven remaining tenants in the building, between South 4th and South 5th streets, and they claimed that a 2010 revision of the Loft Law, which extended rights and rental protections to residents living in illegally-converted industrial lofts, should have included their homes.

The ruling, by Brooklyn Appeals Court Justice Ariel Belen, says otherwise. It noted that the tenants signed an agreement with the property landlord years before the revision came into effect. Also, the judge said, that agreement stipulated that the tenants would vacate the lofts by last spring.

Yesterday’s ruling in favor of the landlord, Mona Gora-Friedman, further affirms a decision in the Brooklyn Supreme Court reached earlier this month that concluded the Loft Law cannot apply to tenants who promised to abide by a set move-out date. [Brooklyn Paper]