Four-Year Rule Doesn't Apply

Landlord sued to evict tenant and claimed that tenant was deregulated in 1997 by a high-rent vacancy, after adding a vacancy increase and an individual apartment improvement increase to prior tenant's rent. Tenant claimed that he was rent stabilized and that there was a rent overcharge. He also claimed fraud by landlord. The court ruled for tenant without a trial. Landlord appealed, and the case was reopened. In 1997, landlord increased the monthly rent by $1,061 based on apartment improvements made after prior rent-stabilized tenant moved out. Whether the apartment was exempt from rent stabilization due to high-rent vacancy and whether landlord's improvements justified the rent increase collected were questions of fact that required a trial. But tenant didn't present any valid fraud claim, so only the rent-stabilization status was at issue. The four-year rule still applied to tenant's rent overcharge claim.

150 West 82nd Street Realty Assoc., LLC v. Linde: NYLJ, 9/17/12, p. 18, col. 3 (App. T. 1 Dept.; Lowe III, PJ, Schoenfeld, Hunter Jr., JJ)