Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal of Tenants' Untimely Rent Overcharge Claim

May 24, 2024

LVT Number: #33216

Landlord sued rent-stabilized tenants in State Supreme Court, seeking recovery of $59,000 in back rent now owed since tenants stopped paying rent in March 2020. Tenants responded with claims of rent overcharge. They said that landlord improperly charged them a vacancy increase in 1993 when they took over a family member's lease, and that landlord improperly discontinued a preferential rent for the apartment. Tenants claimed that the court should look back more than six years due to fraud by the landlord.

Landlord sued rent-stabilized tenants in State Supreme Court, seeking recovery of $59,000 in back rent now owed since tenants stopped paying rent in March 2020. Tenants responded with claims of rent overcharge. They said that landlord improperly charged them a vacancy increase in 1993 when they took over a family member's lease, and that landlord improperly discontinued a preferential rent for the apartment. Tenants claimed that the court should look back more than six years due to fraud by the landlord. The court granted landlord's request to dismiss tenants' overcharge claims because the case was subject to a six-year lookback period and tenants failed to show there was any question of a fraudulent rent scheme. 

Tenants appealed and lost. Tenants failed to show that excessive rent charged upon lease renewal constituted a fraudulent scheme. And, even assuming that the 2008 revocation of the preferential rent previously charged was not merely a breach of contract but also a violation of the Rent Stabilization Law and therefore void, tenant's rent overcharge claim was untimely.

 

310 E. 74 LLC v. Mirea: Index No. 657182/21, App. No. 2114, Case No. 2023-05344, 2024 NY Slip Op 02131 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; 4/23/24; Manzanet-Daniels, JP, Kapnick, Kennedy, Higgitt, O'Neill Levy, JJ)

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