Landlord Could Collect Renewal Lease Rent Upon Rent Restoration
LVT Number: #25307
Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for nonpayment of rent. Landlord claimed that tenant owed over $2,000 in back rent for the period between October 2012 and January 2013. Landlord claimed that tenant's monthly rent was $618. Tenant claimed that the monthly rent sought was unlawful based on a DHCR rent reduction order. Tenant asked the court to dismiss the case without a trial.
The court ruled against tenant. The DHCR had issued a rent reduction order in 1990, reducing tenant's rent from $282.91 to $245.79. The order specified that no rent increases could be collected after the effective date of the rent reduction order until a rent restoration order was issued. Between 1990 and 2010, landlord registered both the legal rent as increased by lease renewals every two years, as well as the actual rent paid of $245.79. In December 2012, the DHCR issued a rent restoration order, restoring the rent as of Sept. 1, 2012, to the level in effect before the 1990 rent reduction plus all lawful increases collectible since then. Tenant argued that this meant that landlord could collect only $282.91, plus the guidelines increase in place after Sept. 1, 2012.
The court disagreed and interpreted the Rent Stabilization Law and Code to mean that, effective Sept. 1, 2012, landlord was entitled to collect $618 per month, which was the full legal rent permitted under tenant's current renewal lease. The rent reduction order had served merely to freeze the collectible legal rent while that order remained in effect.
West 109 Realty LLC v. Hidalgo: 978 NYS2d 670, 2014 NY Slip Op 24006 (Civ. Ct. NY; 1/8/14; Kraus, J)