Eileen O'Toole's blog
Court Strikes HSTPA's Retroactive Application in Overcharge Cases
On April 2, 2020, New York’s highest court issued an important set of decisions in four consolidated cases concerning rent overcharge of rent-stabilized tenants. Here, in Regina Metropolitan Co., LLC v. DHCR et seq., the Court of Appeals had been asked to decide the proper method for calculating the recoverable rent overcharge for NYC apartments that were improperly removed from rent stabilization during receipt of J-51 tax benefits. This issue had come up repeatedly since the Court’s 2009 Roberts v. Tishman Speyer Properties ruling.
DHCR Reverses Position on Retroactive Application of Bridge-the-Gap Rule
Following a 2018 court ruling that Rent Stabilization Code (RSC) §2526.1(a)(3)(iii), as amended in 2014, does not have retroactive effect, the DHCR has reversed its prior position that the amended RSC provision applied retroactively to determine legal rents after owners had followed the prior RSC provision to set negotiated first rents after an extended vacancy or temporary exemption from rent regulation.