Bronx County Courthouse. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Jim Henderson

Tenant paid rent but received no receipts from landlord. Francisco Pacheco lived in a rent-stabilized apartment in the Bronx, managed by Mayflower Properties, LLC. Mayflower Properties sued Pacheco for back rent of $11,575, later increasing the claim to $16,011.

Pacheco admitted that he owed six months of rent amounting to $8,874, but alleged that the landlord had failed to give him receipts for the rent he paid as required by the Real Property Law Section 235-e(a) and the Rent Stabilization Code Section 2525.2 (b)(2).

At trial, Mayflower properties produced business records that included several slips of paper but no receipts. Judge Bernadette G. Black ruled that because Mayflower Properties could not produce receipts for rent that Pacheco had paid, the court would not accept Mayflower Properties’s claim for rent beyond the amount Pacheco admitted owing. The court ordered Pacheco to pay only the admitted amount of $8,874.

Mayflower Props., LLC v Pacheco, 64 Misc. 3d 1216(A) (Civ. Ct. 2019).

Written by Chantal Mota, New York Law School Student, Class of 2021.