This NY Court of Appeals decision presents “a common issue under the Rent Stabilization Law (RSL): what is the proper method for calculating the recoverable rent overcharge for New York City apartments that were improperly removed from rent stabilization during receipt of J-51 benefits prior to (the NY Court of Appeals decision) in “Roberts v. Tishman Spyer Props., L.P.” (Roberts).

When leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals was granted in these cases, the RSL required that “absent, fraud, an overcharge was to be calculated by using the rent charged on the date four years prior to filing of the overcharge complaint (the ‘lookback’) as the ‘base date rent,’ adding any legal increases applicable during the four-year lookback…and computing the difference between that legal regulated rent and the rent actually charged to determine if the tenant was overcharged during the recovery period.” In those cases, “consideration of rental history predating the four-year lookback and statute of limitations (SOL) period was prohibited.”