Tenant Not Limited by FMRA Considerations for Rent History Review

A deregulated, market-rent tenant sued landlord claiming that the unit was unlawfully deregulated after the prior rent-controlled tenant vacated. Landlord asked the court to dismiss the case and presented leases and a so-ordered stipulation settling a prior housing court case. These records showed that the prior rent-controlled tenant moved out on June 30, 2005, and that landlord then entered into a lease with another tenant for a monthly rent in excess of $2,000, which was the vacancy deregulation threshold at that time. The court denied landlord's request to dismiss on this basis, and landlord appealed.

The appeals court again ruled against landlord. The documents landlord submitted to the lower court did not, in and of themselves, refute tenant's claim that the apartment was wrongly, or fraudulently, removed from rent regulation. Landlord correctly argued that, regardless of whether it provided RR-1 notices, under pre-HSTPA RSC Section 2522.3, a fair market rent appeal would need to be filed within four years of the last rent-controlled tenant's vacancy or by June 30, 2009. But this action wasn't a fair market rent appeal and the apartment's rent history may be examined beyond four years to determine its rent stabilization status. A tenant may challenge the claimed deregulated status of a dwelling at any time during their tenancy.

Thurman v. Sullivan Props. LP: Index No. 653540/22, App. No. 1974, Case No. 2023-03694 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; 4/4/24; Renwick, PJ, Manzanet-Daniels, Kennedy, Mendez, Michael, JJ)