Apartment Owner Waited Too Long to Recoup SCRIE Credits

Co-op corporation sued former co-op sponsor who held unsold shares to five rent-stabilized and rent-controlled apartments. Some of these tenants received SCRIE benefits. After discovering it was entitled to the tax credit received by the corporation from the SCRIE program, the sponsor withheld monthly maintenance for some time in order to recoup the tax credits. The corporation claimed that the sponsor had waited too long to claim this money and breached its obligation to pay monthly maintenance for the apartments. The court ruled for the corporation. Although the corporation should have credited the sponsor for the value of the tax credit received for the sponsor’s SCRIE tenants, the sponsor had waited more than six years to withhold the claimed credits. The proprietary leases for the apartments also contained no set-off provisions, thus barring the sponsor from setting off its maintenance obligations with the SCRIE credits.

20 Plaza Street Corp. v. 20 Plaza East Realty: 2012 NY Slip Op 22238, 2012 WL 3764518 (Sup. Ct. NY; 8/30/12; Braun, J)