Apartment Improvements Must Be Proven by Facts

Landlord sued to evict unregulated tenant, whose rent was more than $2,000 per month. Tenant claimed that he was rent stabilized. Landlord claimed that it spent $30,000 on individual apartment improvements after prior tenant moved out. This resulted in a rent increase for 1/40^th improvements and raised the legal rent over the $2,000 vacancy deregulation threshold. The court ruled for tenant, finding that landlord hadn’t sufficiently itemized the improvement costs. Landlord appealed and won, initially. Tenant then appealed, and the higher appeals court found that, as a matter of law, landlord failed to prove its costs because they weren’t itemized enough.

Landlord then appealed to New York’s highest court. The court found that there was no inflexible rule either that landlord was always required, or never required, to submit an item-by-item breakdown showing which costs were for improvements and which for repairs in connection with extensive apartment renovation work. Each case involved a question of fact, and the appeals court was wrong to apply a strict rule. The court sent the case back to the lower appeals court to review the facts.

Jemrock Realty Co., LLC v. Krugman: NYLJ, 1/15/10, p. 40, col. 3 (Ct. App.; Lippman, CJ, Ciparick, Graffeo, Read, Smith, Pigott, Jones, JJ)