Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association

CW Capital is sending out renewal material to former market rate residents whose leases expire April 30th. The information that follows was prepared by Alex Schmidt, lead attorney in the Roberts case to explain the events that led to this and the options tenants have when confronted with the renewal packets.  Mr. Schmidt asks anyone receiving such a renewal packet to contact his associate, Michael Liskow, by email: liskow at whafh dot com.  If you do not have access to email you can also contact him by phone at (212) 545-4611.

Mr. Schmidt’s Statement:
We understand that about 200 lease renewals for one- or two-year terms beginning in May are being delivered this week to tenants whose apartments were recently restabilized under the Roberts decision.  We do not know how much rents will increase, though CWCapital or the Owners have apparently represented to someone (other than us) that

no one’s rent will go up by more than 15%.  That, of course, is unacceptable

in our view.  We believe rents are already illegally high for most of the newly restabilized tenants.  Accordingly, we would like to receive copies of these renewal notices from as many tenants as possible so that we can study them, assess what CW is doing on an overall percentage increase basis, and help any tenants who may be faced with unaffordable increases beginning May 1 or later in May.  
 

Meanwhile, to summarize the current game plan:

 1.  The Court has issued an order asking DHCR to opine on the proper rent formula by April 1.  We and the Owners will be filing briefs with DHCR on February 16 and reply briefs on February 22 to argue our respective positions on what the formula is.

 2.  Once the DHCR issues its advisory opinion, we will make a motion in the Court respecting the formula—either asking the Court to adopt DHCR’s formula if we agree with it, or to reject any portions of DHCR’s opinion we think the Court should disagree with.

 3.  If we file such a motion, it is our hope that the Court will rule before any rent increases go into effect in May.

 4.  Some tenants may receive renewals seeking unaffordable increases and, under DHCR rules, will have to choose whether to renew within 60 days of receiving the notice of renewal, or as early as April 1 for some people.  To address this situation, the Court has entered an order that:

     a.  Calls on the Owners to try to reach an accord with any tenant who demonstrates to the Owners that the tenant cannot afford the increase.  Thus, any tenant who believes s/he is in that position, should contact the leasing office and say they would like to be accommodated until the Court resolves the formula issue.  The tenant should suggest one or both of two things—(i) getting a rent reduction to an affordable level, or (ii) getting an extension of their 60-day period to give notice of whether they will stay or leave until, say, May 1.  If necessary and advisable, the tenant should also try to get the Owners’ permission to stay in the apartment month to month until the Court resolves the formula issue, and then to have 30-60 days to move if their rent is still unaffordable under the Court’s ruling.

     b.  Calls on any tenant who does not get a satisfactory accommodation from the Owners to notify Wolf Haldenstein.  Mike Liskow and I will then contact the Owners’ counsel to try to get an accommodation.  If we cannot, we are free to renew our motion asking the Court to issue a temporary restraining order that prevents any increases from going into effect until the rent formula issue is resolved by the Court.
 
The long and short of it is that no tenant should face the Hobson’s choice of having to vacate their rent stabilized apartment due to an unaffordable increase if the tenant could afford what might eventually turn out to be a lower legal rent.  The above plan incorporates sufficient protections that any tenant might need in place to prevent that injustice from happening to them.

 If the tenant can afford to pay the increase, they should do so, since their overpayments, or a healthy portion of them, might become part of their damages in the class action.  The tenant may also have the option to bring an individual treble damages claim before the the DHCR or the Civil Court, outside of the class action, as to 2011 rents.
 
Alexander H. Schmidt
Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP
270 Madison Avenue
New York, New York 10016

Office (212) 545-4600