Prior Settlement Agreement Set Legal Rent, Not Preferential

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for refusing to sign the renewal lease landlord offered tenant. Tenant claimed that the renewal was improper because it claimed to discontinue tenant's preferential rent and to charge a higher, legal regulated rent upon renewal. Tenant argued that there had been no preferential rent previously. The court ruled for tenant and dismissed the case. In 2004, prior landlord and 22 building tenants signed a settlement agreement in a nonpayment proceeding. In that agreement, which settled tenants' rent strike, prior landlord set rents for each of the apartments. Although prior landlord later registered the agreed rents as preferential and also registered higher legal rents, this was contrary to the settlement agreement. New landlord was bound by the 2004 court-ordered settlement agreement. And even though the agreement was signed more than four years before tenant claimed the rent overcharge, landlord had a continuing duty to comply with the agreement. So the court properly considered the settlement agreement in determining tenant's legal rent.

East 122 Realty LLC v. Perez: NYLJ, 4/29/09, p. 28, col. 3 (Civ. Ct. NY; Martino, J)