Landlord Can Stop Charging Preferential Rent on Renewal
LVT Number: 18540
Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenants for nonpayment of rent. Tenants claimed that landlord had collected a rent overcharge, and asked the court to dismiss the cases. Landlord had renewed their leases at legal regulated rents. But tenants previously had preferential rents. They claimed that landlord must renew at fair market rents, which they claimed were still lower than legal regulated rents. The court ruled against tenants. Landlord needn't consider the market rent in renewing tenants' leases. The Rent Stabilization Law was amended in 2003 to permit landlords to stop charging preferential rents on renewal. The only bar to doing so would be a lease agreement to continue to charge the preferential rent. There was no such agreement in any of these cases.
New Haven Pl. v. Beaufort: NYLJ, 11/30/05, p. 20, col. 1 (Dist. Ct. Nassau; Fairgrieve, J)