Tenant Gets Renewal Lease at Preferential Rent

Rent-stabilized tenant sued landlord, seeking a declaration from the court that he was entitled to renew his lease at a preferential rent. Tenant's initial lease and three subsequent renewal leases were offered at preferential rents, which were less than the legal regulated rents. Landlord's most recent renewal lease offer didn't provide for a preferential rent. Tenant claimed that the terms of his initial lease, granting a preferential rent for the duration of his tenancy, must be applied. Landlord argued that a 2003 amendment to the Rent Stabilization Law allowed landlord to terminate the preferential rent upon lease renewal. Tenant also had agreed to a new provision in his third renewal lease that, in the future, landlord could use the legal regulated rent, not the preferential rent, to calculate renewal increases.
The court ruled for tenant. The Rent Stabilization Law provision didn't apply where tenant's initial lease or a lease renewal contained a clause entitling tenant to further leases at a preferential rent for the full length of the tenancy. And the third renewal lease, in which tenant agreed to forgo the preferential rent in the future, wasn't a legally permissible agreement. The Rent Stabilization Law required landlord to offer tenant a renewal lease on the same terms and conditions as his prior leases.

Von Rosenvinge v. Wellington Fee LLC: NYLJ, 4/21/08, p. 19, col. 1 (Sup. Ct. NY; Stallman, J)