Apartment Illegally Deregulated

[heyjojo5151]

According to the rent history for my apartment, it was illegally deregulated. I am currently doing a deep dive into better understanding the rent stabilization laws and past cases where tenants challenged the status of their apartments including rent overcharge.

This forum has been an education like no other but there is one case in particular that was mentioned, that for some reason I am unable to find more info on that I believe could answer a few questions regarding my own.
Central Park South Associates vs Haynes
January 10, 1997

If anyone has a summary of this case. I would greatly appreciate the assistance.

[TenantNet]

Central Park South Associates v. Haynes is a 1996 case from Civil Court Judge Stuart Dankberg. It was his last decision before leaving the bench (he lost re-election). I tend to think this was his way at getting back at tenants for losing (he became a landlord lawyer later). Obviously I can't prove that, just a thought.

In any case, this was 1996 and a Civil Court matter, and as far as know, never appealed. It would not be a controlling case.

A very similar issue arose in the Altman matter, which did go to the Court of Appeals. Essentially that court said an apartment could be deregulated immediately after the prior tenant vacated, and for a high rent that a) hadn't yet been set, b) for new tenants that hadn't moved in, c) for leases that hadn't been signed, and for improvements that hadn't been made. But that's the NYS highest court. Thank you to Andrew Cuomo.

I seem to remember that Altman impacted retroactive cases as the NYS legislature changed the law in 2015.

I also remember one case (discussed on this forum) where the DHCR said the deregulation could not take place if the subsequent tenant had not signed a new [unregulated] lease. That was under appeal the last I heard. The LL was appealing the DHCR decision and remitted the case back to DHCR (they are usually more than happy to change a tenant-winning case into a victory for landlords).

See our discussion on CPA v. Haynes at http://tenant.net/Court/Hcourt/archive/1997/jan97.html

See the text of CPA v Haynes at https://casetext.com/case/cent-park-s-assocs-v-haynes

And we're attaching it to this post.

Cent Park S Assocs v. Haynes.pdf

[heyjojo5151]

Thanks so much for the info.
Altman is interesting bc I was looking for a retroactive case where the tenant received a status reversal back to rent stabilized and an overcharge for an illegally deregulated apartment from 10+years prior. I thought I had read about one or two on this thread but can’t seem to locate it.

Each of these cases is a painful reminder just how much tenants have to go thru to defend their rights in a system designed to ultimately fail the ones it was created to protect.

[TenantNet]

Just remember the 4 year statute of limitations has to do with overcharges. AFAIK, there are no lookback limitations on apt. status. Look closely at the Grimm and Regina cases ... and subsequent litigation.