Higher Legal Regulated Rent Not Stated on Renewal Lease
LVT Number: 17881
Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for nonpayment of rent. Tenant claimed that landlord demanded more than the legal rent. Landlord claimed that the rent demanded was the legal rent. It claimed that prior rent was a preferential rent. When landlord renewed tenant's lease, it charged a guidelines increase over the higher, legal rent. Landlord claimed that it was allowed to renew tenant's rent over legal rent, not preferential rent, under the 2003 Rent Stabilization Law amendment. The court ruled against landlord. Landlord presented no lease rider or other proof that tenant's prior rent was a preferential rent. Only tenant's current renewal lease contained a preferential rent rider. And although tenant moved into the apartment in 1994, the court couldn't consider lease records that predated the base date four years before tenant raised his overcharge claim.
Auto Park Inc. v. Bugdaycay: NYLJ, 1/12/05, p. 21, col. 1 (Civ. Ct. NY; Wendt, J)