Landlord & Tenant Law

In landlord's summary holdover proceeding, tenant appealed from the Appellate Term's affirmance of Civil court's denial of tenant's motion for summary judgment dismissing the petition. The Appellate Division affirmed, holding that the Rent Act of 2015 did not re-regulate apartments that had been properly deregulated under the 2011 Rent Act.

The prior tenant vacated the subject apartment in August 2011. That tenant enjoyed a preferential rent. Under the vacancy and guidelines increases permitted under the Rent Act of 2011, the apartment had reached the high rent vacancy deregulation threshold of $2,500. The Rent Act of 2015 provided that an apartment for which a preferential rent was charged would become subject to deregulation when the legal rent reached $2,500 prior to vacancy for any apartment that "becomes vacant after the effective date of the rent act of 2011 but prior to the effective date of the rent act of 2015." Tenant argued that this statute was applicable to his apartment. Civil Court and the Appellate Term rejected that conclusion, and tenant appealed.