Tenant's Rent-Stabilized Status Didn't Transfer When She Moved

(Decision submitted by Craig M. Notte of the Manhattan law firm of Borah, Goldstein, Altschuler, Nahins & Goidel, P.C., attorneys for the landlord.)

Tenant sued landlord, claiming rent overcharge and improper deregulation of two apartments she lived in at the building. Tenant also claimed that the rent stabilization status she had in her first apartment transferred to the second apartment when she moved there in March 2014. Tenant moved into the first apartment in early 2007 and was incorrectly given a deregulated lease while the building still received J-51 tax benefits. The J-51 benefits expired in June 2007. Landlord admitted that the first apartment was incorrectly deregulated by prior landlord. But landlord claimed that tenant's rent stabilization coverage didn't transfer when she moved to the second apartment and that the second apartment was deregulated by the time tenant moved there.

The court agreed, in part. Tenant told prior landlord that she wanted to move to the second apartment, and prior landlord accommodated her request. So the rent stabilization coverage of the first apartment didn't transfer to the second apartment. But it wasn't clear that the second apartment had been properly deregulated when tenant moved in.  So the court denied landlord's request to dismiss the rent overcharge claim. More fact-finding was needed.

McDonald v. JBAM TRG Spring, LLC: 58 Misc.3d 1213(A), 2018 NY Slip Op 50075(U)(Sup. Ct. NY; 1/23/18; St. George, J)