RENT

Landlord Can't Evict Successor Tenant for Not Paying Prior Tenant's Unpaid Rent

November 22, 2021    

Landlord sued to evict Mitchell-Lama tenant in April 2019, claiming that she owed $17,897 in back rent from November 2017 through March 2019 under an occupancy agreement. Tenant previously had lived in the apartment...

Successor Tenant Not Entitled to Prior Rent-Stabilized Tenant's Preferential Rent

October 26, 2021    

Landlord asked the DHCR in 2017 to determine if it could give the former rent-stabilized tenant's successor tenant a renewal lease based on the prior tenant's legal regulated rent. After the prior tenant...

Shareholder Tenant Must Pay Use and Occupancy While Lawsuit Is Pending

September 28, 2021    

Cooperative shareholder tenant held shares of two apartments in a co-op building. He entered an agreement with the co-op by which he would receive a maintenance credit until certain repairs were completed by the co-...

Landlord's Chronic Nonpayment Claim Insufficient to Warrant Eviction

September 23, 2021    

Landlord sued to evict tenant for chronic nonpayment of rent, claiming that it had commenced five nonpayment proceedings against tenant during a six-year period. Landlord also claimed that tenant withheld rent and...

Court Denies Former Tenant's Request to Dismiss Unpaid Rent Claim

September 23, 2021    

Landlord sued former tenant for $7,000, claiming that tenant failed to provide proper and timely notice of vacatur. So landlord didn't get possession of the unit until April 30, 2017. The court ruled for landlord...

Landlord's Preferential Rent Rider Was Invalid

August 24, 2021    

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for failure to renew his lease. In answer to the holdover petition, tenant claimed that landlord induced him to sign a lease rider several months after he signed his...

Rent Demand That Included Non-Rent Charges Was Fatally Defective

June 21, 2021    

Landlord sued to evict tenant for nonpayment of rent, with rent arrears going back to 2016. The court dismissed the portion of the case seeking rent prior to November 2018, since that portion had been paid. But the...

Did Landlord Improperly Use Rent Concessions in 421-a Program?

May 25, 2021    

Rent-stabilized tenants in a 421-a building sued landlord claiming that landlord registered illusory initial rents for apartments in the building by utilizing rent concessions. Typically, a lease gave new tenant a...

Landlord Properly Mitigated Damages After Tenant Broke Lease

May 25, 2021    

Landlord sued former tenant for rent owed after tenant broke her lease and moved out. Landlord had rented the apartment to tenant in December 2019 at a monthly rent of $12,500. The lease gave tenant a rent concession...

DHCR Recalculates Legal Rent for Rent-Stabilized Tenant in SRO Hotel

May 24, 2021    

After an appeals court ruled in 2015 that an SRO hotel occupant qualified as a permanent tenant under rent stabilization, landlord applied to the DHCR for a ruling to determine the unit's legal regulated rent. In...

Tenants in HUD/HPD Housing Can't Pursue Untimely Rent Increase Objection

April 23, 2021    

Tenants of a privately owned affordable housing project challenged in federal court the regulatory approval of rent increases 10 years earlier by HUD and HPD. The District Court (EDNY) dismissed the case in March...

DHCR Sets Rent for Permanent Tenant in SRO Building

April 20, 2021    

Landlord asked the DHCR to determine the legal rent for tenant's SRO unit after a court ruled that tenant was a rent-stabilized permanent tenant. Tenant had checked into the SRO building in 2015, paid a daily...