Just when New York courts were beginning to consistently apply the law concerning the elements that a tenant must prove to establish the “fraud exception” to the “pre-HSTPA” four-year statute of limitations and lookback rule for rent overcharge claims, the Legislature, in reaction to recent court decisions, has made a belated effort to retroactively redefine “fraud” in the context of pre-HSTPA claims, passing a bill that would effectively deem any past violation of any law or duty by a landlord to constitute fraud.
Gary Rosenberg
On June 20, 2023, the final day of the legislative session, the New York State Assembly passed a controversial bill, already passed by the Senate on June 9, 2023, which, among other things, purports to “clearly define the scope of the fraud exception to the pre-HSTPA four-year rule for calculating rents,” “in light of court decisions arising under the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (HSTPA), including Regina Metro v. DHCR.”
Ethan Cohen of Rosenberg & Estis
