Tenant Whose Initial Rent in 2003 Was Over $2,000 Was Deregulated

Landlord sued to evict deregulated tenant, who claimed that he was rent stabilized. The court ruled for tenant and dismissed the case based on the Appellate Division's  decision in Altman v. 285 W. Fourth LLC. Landlord appealed and won. Tenant then appealed further. The Appellate Division ruled for landlord. The prior rent-stabilized tenant's legal rent was $1,836 in 2003 when that tenant moved out. When the complaining tenant moved into the apartment in 2003, the addition of a 20 percent vacancy increase raised the legal rent to over $2,000 per month. As amended by the 1997 Rent Regulation Reform Act, the rent stabilization law in effect at that time permitted vacancy deregulation of the rent when tenant moved in. New York's highest court reversed the lower court's Altman case ruling in April 2018.

233 E. 5th St. LLC v. Smith: 2018 NY Slip Op 04837, 2018 WL 3149075 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; 6/28/18; Friedman, JP, Richter, Mazzarelli, Kapnick, Gesmer, JJ)