City Mandatory Rental Terms Violated State Law

Rental Assistance program sought to establish lease renewal and limit rent increases based on rent stabilization regulations. In 2015, prospective tenants Regina Alston and Sandra Vaughn-Cooke inquired about apartment vacancies at Spring Creek Towers. Starrett City, Inc. owns Spring Creek Towers, located in the East New York neighborhood in Brooklyn. Spring Creek Towers is an apartment complex with 5,881 apartments. Alston and Vaughn-Cooke both had Living in Communities (LINC) rental vouchers. Starrett City, Inc. … <Read More>


Owner Wins Rent Stabilization Dispute

Tenants of a Tribeca high rise luxury rental building claimed protection of rent stabilization. Tenants of Tribeca House, a luxury rental residential building located at 50 Murray Street, Manhattan claimed that the owner of the building overcharged the tenants. Tribeca House, a twenty-one-story luxury loft apartment building, has 389 apartments comprised of studio, one, two, and three bedroom units.


Court of Appeals Rules Tenant’s West Village Apartment Is No Longer Rent-Stabilized

Post-vacancy increases included in calculation for rent stabilization deregulation. On April 26, 2018, the New York Court of Appeals held that vacancy increases are included in determining if the rent amount triggers deregulation of a rent-stabilized apartment. Richard Altman sued 285 West Fourth LLC, its landlord, asking the court to declare that his apartment is subject to rent stabilization and requiring the landlord to offer Altman a rent-stabilized lease. Rent stabilization provides tenants with rates … <Read More>


Mayor Signs Legislation To Extend Rent-Stabilization Laws

Due to City’s low vacancy rate, rent stabilization laws have been extended. On March 27, 2018, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed legislation to extend rent regulation laws for the next three years. The laws will remain in effect until April 1, 2021. State rent stabilization laws continue to be effective when the vacancy rate is below 5%. The City’s vacancy rates are determined and measured by the Housing and Vacancy Survey, which is conducted every … <Read More>


Central Park West tenants win rent case

Owner claimed that federal law pre-empted Central Park West building from rent stabilization. In 1969, Jacob Haberman purchased nine separate tenement buildings at 431–439 Central Park West in Manhattan. Haberman took out a loan from the Federal Housing Administration in order to rehabilitate and combine the tenements into a single apartment building containing 120 units. In 1980, Haberman received a subsidy grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and contracted with HUD … <Read More>


Buildings Exempted from Rent Law

Red Hook developer converted commercial buildings into residential apartments. Harbor Tech LLC in 1999 purchased a commercial complex located in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn that had been built in the 1920s and used continuously for commercial purposes. Harbor Tech by 2005 had converted the five interlaced buildings of the complex into 100 residential units.

Thirty-five residents of the complex in 2013 sued Harbor Tech to have the City’s Rent Stabilization Law applied … <Read More>