Rent Increase and Failure to Register Didn't Prove Fraudulent Scheme to Deregulate

Tenant sued landlord, claiming rent overcharge and improper deregulation of his apartment. The court denied tenant's request for a decision in his favor without a trial. Tenant appealed and lost. Tenant claimed rent fraud by landlord, but an increase in rent and failure to register the apartment with the DHCR, standing alone, weren't sufficient to establish a colorable claim of a fraudulent scheme to deregulate the apartment. This wasn't a case where the owner of a J-51 building was misrepresenting the rent-stabilized status of an apartment or the legal regulated rent. Tenant pointed to no circumstances that would have precluded landlord from deregulating the apartment in 2000 if the rent reached the high-rent vacancy deregulation threshold. Landlord will have to prove at trial that the apartment was properly deregulated sometime between 2000 and 2014, before tenant moved in. And whether current landlord was responsible for prior landlord's potential overcharge was a question of fact, to be determined.

Ampim v. 160 East 48th Street Owner II LLC: Index No. 154979/17, App. No. 16253, Case No. 2021-03412 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; 9/27/22; Webber, JP, Kern, Singh, Moulton, Shulman, JJ)