Court Correctly Calculated Rent Due

Landlord of precompliance loft building sued to evict 15 tenants for nonpayment of rent. The cases were consolidated, and the court calculated the back rent owed by each tenant. Landlord appealed, arguing it was allowed to collect multiple cost-of-living adjustments. Landlord also claimed that the 6 percent rent hike it was entitled to collect under Multiple Dwelling Law Section 286 (2)(ii)(A) should have been merged with the base rent and the guideline increase. The appeals court ruled that the trial court had calculated the rent correctly. The multiple cost-of-living adjustments are precluded by the Loft Board rent guidelines, which provide for a ''one time only'' rent increase for precompliance interim multiple dwellings (IMDs). And, landlord can only merge the 6 percent rent hike with the base rent. Landlord can't merge that rent hike with the one-time guideline increase because landlord didn't demand the one-time increase in writing.

640 Broadway Renaissance Co. v. Rossiter: NYLJ, p. 26, col. 1 (1/3/95) (App. T. 1 Dept.; Parness, JP, McCooe, Glen, JJ)