In our judgment, this is a skewed perspective of the matter at hand. The warranty of habitability, set forth in Real Property Law § 235-b, is a fundamental feature of the lease of residential property, and assures that the duty to maintain the premises in a habitable condition is coextensive and interdependent with the duty to pay rent (Park W. Mgt. Corp. v Mitchell, 47 NY2d 316, 327, cert denied 444 US 992). The fact that responsibility for such maintenance shifts to the receiver during a foreclosure proceeding by court order of attornment does not alter this interdependence. As a general matter, attornment is "the act of the tenant putting a person in the place of another as his landlord. The tenant who has attorned continues to hold upon the same terms as he held of his former landlord” (Austin v Ahearne, 61 NY 6, 15 [emphasis deleted]). Moreover, the receiver in foreclosure occupies the same position as the owner or mortgagor for a variety of purposes (see, e.g., Canale v New York State Dept, of Taxation & Fin., 84 Misc 2d 786); in the absence of fraud, the terms of a landlord’s rental agreement with a tenant binds a receiver in foreclosure (Bank for Sav. v Shenk Realty & Constr. Co., 265 App Div 72). Finally, the receiver has a legal duty to maintain the property in good repair and is liable for damages for the failure to meet that duty (General Obligations Law § 9-101); the responsibility to make repairs necessary to comply with the warranty of habitability in this case (elevator repair, roof repair, and the like) is fully consistent with that duty.