City and state officials are concerned that a bankruptcy suit involving 444 East 13th Street will lead to bad precedent undermining rent stabilization laws. (Image Credit: Google Maps)
Government officials fear bad precedent could make it easier for landlords to bypass rent stabilization laws. On March 13, 2019, New York Attorney General Letitia James, the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (NYSHCR) and the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) announced that the State and City moved to join in an action in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York as part of a fight to protect tenants in rent-stabilized apartments. The owner of 444 East 13th Street, in the East Village section of Manhattan, applied to reject tenants’ leases. (read more…)
Third Avenue Residential Apartments at 160 East 84th Street. Image credit: CityLaw.
State used sampling method to set new base rent for studio improperly deregulated under luxury decontrol. The owner of a rental building at 160 East 84th Street, Manhattan, took advantage of the luxury decontrol provisions of the Rent Stabilization Law to deregulate a studio apartment. Subsequently, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that buildings like 160 East 84th Street were ineligible to take advantage of luxury decontrol because the building was also receiving tax incentive benefits under New York City’s j-51 program. (read more…)
885 Park Avenue, Brooklyn. Image credit: GoogleMaps
Bedford-Stuyvesant developer converted commercial building into residential apartments. 885 Park Avenue Brooklyn LLC owned a commercial building located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn that had been used solely for commercial purposes. Beginning in 1999, 885 Park converted the building into 23 new residential units. The conversion was completed in 2003. In 2011, Daniel Goddard signed a one-year market-rate lease with 885 Park. (read more…)
