SCRIE Credit Must Be Applied Toward Tenant’s Preferential Rent

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for nonpayment of rent. The trial court dismissed the case. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that it properly applied tenant’s SCRIE credit to her legal regulated rent and that tenant owed remaining arrears. Tenant argued, and the courts agreed, that the parties had agreed that the SCRIE credit would be applied to tenant’s preferential rent. Under Rent Stabilization Law Section 26-511(c)(4), once landlord decided to continue to offer tenant a preferential rent on her renewal lease, the practice of deducting the SCRIE abatement from tenant’s preferential rent became a “term and condition” of tenant’s lease agreement that had to be continued.

83rd Street Apt. Co., LLC v. Shaustyuk: 2015 NY Slip Op 25410, 2015 WL 8486194 (App. T. 2 Dept.; 12/8/15; Pesce, PJ, Weston, Aliotta, JJ)