Vacancy Deregulation Applied to New Tenant with Legal Rent Over $2,000 in 2005

Tenant sued landlord, claiming that he was improperly deregulated in 2005. Although landlord legally collected a vacancy increase from tenant that put his rent over $2,000 per month, tenant claimed that he remained rent stabilized because prior rent-stabilized tenant's rent was under $2,000. Tenant was prior tenant's roommate before taking over the lease. The court ruled against tenant, who appealed and won at the Appellate Division.

Landlord then appealed and won before New York's highest court. The court said the issue was whether the 20 percent vacancy increase should be included when calculating the legal regulated rent for purposes of determining whether the apartment had reached the $2,000 vacancy deregulation threshold then in effect. The court ruled that the vacancy increase, which put the legal rent over the $2,000 vacancy deregulation threshold, must be included under Rent Stabilization Law Sections 26-511(c)(5-a) and 26-504.2(a). Tenant was properly deregulated.

Altman v. 285 W. Fourth LLC: 2018 WL 1952356 (Ct. App. 4/28/18; DiFiore, C.J.)