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Re: "Court KO's hikes for rent-control apt's"-NY Daily News

Posted by link on January 12, 2001 at 16:02:41:

In Reply to: posted by phil on January 11, 2001 at 15:35:45:

: See article in today's (Thursday, Jan 11) NY Daily News:
: "Court KOs hikes for rent control apartments"
: In my local edition (Manhattan) it's on the front page
: of the "Metro-Your Neighborhood" section, page 1 CN.
: Also may be on their web site.

From: News and Views | City Beat |
Thursday, January 11, 2001

Court KOs Hikes for Rent
Control Apartments


By FRANK LOMBARDI
Daily News Staff Writer

andlord groups yesterday lost a major court skirmish in their long-running bid to impose substantial rent increases on an estimated 42,000 rent-controlled apartments.

In a unanimous ruling, a five-judge panel of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court ruled against the landlords by upholding a City Council law enacted in 1997 that blocked the threatened rent hikes.

"If we had lost this, it would have been a big hit on mostly elderly and poor tenants," said Michael McKee, associate director of the New York Tenants and Neighbors Coalition.

He estimated that landlords would have been able to sock 80% of the city's 52,000 rent-controlled apartments with cumulative increases of as much as 37.5%.

The Appellate Division upheld a decision in April by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Leland DeGrasse. The judge also had ruled against the landlords' attempt to raise rents based on a complicated formula that had been approved by the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal.

The bottom line of all the legal skirmishing is that the raises sought by the landlords remain blocked, according to City Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Queens).

"I am delighted that we have been able to protect the most vulnerable in our city and all rent-controlled tenants," he said of the ruling.

Landlords are weighing a final appeal to the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court. But because the Appellate Division's ruling was unanimous, the landlords will have first to get approval from the Court of Appeals to file an appeal.

"We're reviewing it," said Mitchell Posilkin, general counsel of the Rent Stabilization Association, one of the landlord groups involved in the litigation.

Posilkin contended the City Council exceeded its power when it passed a law in 1997 that thwarted the rent increases.

But, said McKee, "It's about time they threw in the towel on this."


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