In a decision that could enrich tens of thousands of well-heeled tenants citywide, a Manhattan judge has ruled that some Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village tenants are entitled to rent rollbacks — not just going forward, but retroactively.
The ruling applies directly to some 4,400 improperly deregulated apartments in one of the city’s biggest housing complexes.
It leaves MetLife still sharing the burden with current owner Tishman Speyer for a court-mandated repayment of $215 million in improper rent overcharges, despite MetLife having sold the complex in 2006.
But the ruling is also applicable to thousands of other city apartments, landlords complained.
Especially troubling is that yesterday’s decision, by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard Lowe III, leaves it to future judges to define “retroactive” for tenants filing rent-overcharge claims, said Mitchell Posilkin, lawyer for the Rent Stabilization Association, which represents landlords.
Those apartment-by-apartment legal battles could drag on for years.
“This is a victory for some of the wealthiest tenants of New York City. It is these wealthy tenants who entered into these unregulated leases — and who will now receive an undeserved windfall,” Posilkin said.
“Unanswered now is, do the rollbacks go back one year? Ten years?”
But tenant advocates hailed the decision.
“Residents were illegally overcharged for years, and we expect them to get the recovery they deserve,” said City Council member Dan Garodnick, a lifelong resident of Peter Cooper Village and a plaintiff in the class-action suit.
The ruling builds upon last year’s Court of Appeals decision barring landlords who enjoy capital-improvement tax breaks from deregulating apartments where rent has risen above $2,000.
