Sapp v. Clark Wilson, Inc., 2022 NY Slip Op 04184 (2022)

Citation: Sapp v. Clark Wilson, Inc., 2022 NY Slip Op 04184 (2022)
Parent Document: Sapp v. Clark Wilson, Inc., 2022 NY Slip Op 04184 (2022)
Jurisdiction: New York (state)
Effective Date: 2022-06-29
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6620002/sapp-v-clark-wilson-inc/ ↗

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Here, the documents submitted by the plaintiffs support their allegations that the effect of these agreements was to evade the requirements of the Rent Stabilization Code (see e.g. id.). According to the yearly Registration Rent Roll Report from the Office of Rent Administration in the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal records submitted by the plaintiffs in opposition to the owners' motion, since 2002, the apartments in one of the owners' buildings were sublet to We All and We Care at rents considerably in excess of the applicable legal regulated rents. The documents show, for example, that the monthly legal regulated rent in 2011 for one apartment in one of the buildings with a rent-stabilized tenant was listed by the owners as $1,130.99; in 2012, the apartment was vacant and the owners more than doubled the amount of the rent, listing the purported legal regulated rent as $2,400 per month despite the statutory vacancy rate at that time which only permitted a 20% increase (see 9 NYCRR § 2522.8[a][1]). Pursuant to section 2522.8(a)(1) of the Rent Stabilization Code, in 2012, the legal regulated rent of $1,130.99 for that vacant apartment could only be increased by $226.20, and, thus, the maximum legally regulated rent should have been $1,357.19; in 2013, the owners thereafter increased that same apartment's monthly rent to $3,000 when it was leased for the first time since it was vacant to We Care. These records submitted by the plaintiffs raised triable issues of fact as to whether the owners engaged in a rent-hiking practice with respect to all of the apartments leased to the We Care companies from 2002 to 2015.

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