SUPREME COURT PROPERLY REJECTED THE LANDLORD’S CALCULATION OF RENT OVERCHARGES FOR RENT-REGULATED APARTMENTS REMOVED FROM RENT STABILIZATION WHILE THE BUILDING WAS RECEIVING J-51 TAX BENEFITS (FIRST DEPT).
The First Department, over a dissent, determined Supreme Court properly refused to consider defendant landlord’s (Whitehouse’s) calculation of rent overcharges and ordered calculation by a referee. The landlord had removed rent-regulated apartments from rent stabilization while the building received J-51 tax benefits:
We find that the motion court correctly determined that plaintiffs’ legal regulated rent should be calculated according to the default formula set forth in RSC (9 NYCRR) § 2522.6(b). Although defendants may have been following the law in deregulating apartments during the period before Roberts [13 NY3d 270] was decided (see Regina, 35 NY3d at 356), their 2012 retroactive registration of the improperly deregulated apartments was an attempt to avoid the court’s adjudication of the issues and to impose their own rent calculations rather than face a determination of the legal regulated rent within the lookback period. Casey v Whitehouse Estates, Inc., 2021 NY Slip Op 04646, First Dept 8-5-21