Hi everyone!
Your help is always greatly appreciated. Attached is a housing court decision regarding a building that doesn't have a certificate of occupancy since 2003 after landlord illegally divided apartments which added additional 2 apartments to the building.
Based on this decision landlord attempt to evict rent stabilized tenant based on non payment was dismissed. The real question is since this decision confirms that the building didn't have a valid CO since 2003 and landlord was barred from collecting rent since (although he rented and collected rents from all units), wouldn't that also imply that all the illegal rent increases based on renovation to rent stabilized apartments in the building were illegal? wouldn't that mean that the last legal rent is rent from 2003?
Landlord applied renovation increases and allegedly renovated the building when the building doesn't hold a valid CO (still doesn't hold one). Landlord appealed the case and lost again and is barred from collecting rent.
Was landlord allowed to increase rent in rent stabilized apartments without valid CO?