Realty News: Landlord Violated the Law by Overcharging a Renter for 16 Years; Lane Altschuler Awarded $900K and a $784/Month Apartment

Lane Altschuler, an Upper West Side man, was awarded by an Appellate Court $900,000 in damages and re-stabilized his 1,500-square-foot pad to just $784 a month, after he was illegally charged with a rent five times more than what it should have been.

Mr. Altschuler moved into the apartment at 478 Central Park West in 2000, but his rent was illegally raised by his landlord, Mann Realty, shortly after he moved in. When the building was converted into luxury condos, his monthly rent ballooned to $3,750 in 2009.

"The judges agreed the landlord should never have jacked the monthly cost above mandated levels because the city provided owner Jobman 470/480 LLC with J-51 tax abatements," as written in the Daily News. The deregulation by Mann Realty, which allowed them to increase the rent, was kept a secret from state regulators--a violation of state law.

In filing the case, Altschuler initially claimed to simply get his rent lowered and give back the money that was overcharged. Fortunately, he ended up with more than that. Altschuler received $876,619.10 plus interest, and his rent was reduced dramatically to just under $800 a month. He'll benefit in the low monthly rent until he decides to move out, as reported by 6sqft news.

 Magda Cruz, the lawyer who represented the landlord, had said that her client had no intention to cheat Altschuler. "[The landlord] believed at all times it was acting in accordance with the rent laws," the lawyer said.

According to an Astrogo Read report, the monthly rent of $3,750 in 2009 by Altschuler for his apartment, is five times more than he should have been paying.

The lawyer of Altschuler, Christian Siebott, has argued that landlord Mann Realty had deregulated the apartment to raise the rent, and he hid it from state regulators. The case was ruled in 2013 by the court that Altschuler's apartment should have stayed under market rate because his landlord had received over $310K in J-51 tax benefits.