Starting in January, tenants in Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town whose rent-stabilized apartments were illegally decontrolled will get a temporary break on their rents, according to an agreement reached yesterday between the complex’s owners and affected tenants. Filed with Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard B. Lowe III, the stipulation states that the plaintiffs will pay the lesser of the stabilized rent “estimated in good faith” and the previously negotiated lease rent. The rent reduction will extend until June, subject to lender approval.
In the meantime, the parties have agreed to hire an independent consultant to calculate the rent for each unit falling under the Court of Appeals’ landmark ruling in Roberts v. Tishman Speyer. In Roberts, a 4-2 court held that landlords receiving public tax incentives cannot deregulate under the luxury control provisions of the Rent Stabilization Law, and found that thousands of units in the sprawling complex, which has been rent-regulated since at least the 1970s, had been illegally decontrolled by Tishman Speyer Properties and its previous owner (NYLJ, Oct. 23). - Noeleen G. Walder
Judge Drops Most Charges In LIRR Pension Case
