Landlord Showed No Proof of Vacancy Deregulation in 2007

Landlord sued to evict unregulated tenant. Tenant claimed that his apartment had been improperly deregulated and that he was overcharged. The trial court ruled against landlord and dismissed the case. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord argued that the trial court improperly considered the apartment's rent history going back more than four years from when the proceeding was commenced. But landlord was incorrect, since the purpose of reviewing prior rent history was to determine whether the unit was regulated. This didn't require a claim of fraud by tenant. Landlord claimed a high-rent vacancy occurred before tenant moved into the apartment in April 2014. But the last legal registered rent paid by prior tenant was $1,116 in 2006. The apartment was registered as permanently exempt due to high-rent vacancy in July 2007. But landlord presented no proof that the legal rent for the apartment exceeded $2,000 in 2007. There was no witness testimony and no documentation of individual apartment improvements (IAIs). Landlord also never sent the 2007 tenant a required deregulation notice indicating the apartment's last legal rent, the reason the unit was no longer subject to rent stabilization, and how the rent amount was computed.

Diagonal Realty, LLC v. Linares, Index No. 570758/19, 2020 NY Slip Op 51572(U)(App. T. 1 Dept.; 12/31/20; Cooper, JP, Higgitt, McShan)