Landlord-Tenant—Lease Which Attempted to Move Apartment From Rent Control to Rent Stabilized Was Valid and Enforceable—Leases That Attempt to Circumvent Rent Regulation Violate Public Policy and Are Unenforceable—Parties Really Didn’t Know Proper Regulatory Status and Contemplated Clarification by Regulatory Authorities
This decision involves the validity of a 1975 lease for “three combined apartments that provided, inter alia, that the rent-regulated status of the combined unit would be changed from rent-controlled to rent stabilized.” The court did not depart “from long-standing precedent holding that leases that attempt to circumvent the rent laws or remove an apartment from rent regulation are void as against public policy, statute, and code….” Rather, it found that “the lease in this case, which explicitly contemplated the possibility that the apartment would not be decontrolled and expressly stated that the status of the apartment would be determined by the appropriate authority, which will bind the parties,” was valid.
