Tenant Wins Court Order Finding Overcharge
A tenant came to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. with a rental amount that had not gone up in all the years of his tenancy. Suspecting that something was amiss, he asked Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to look into matters. Upon its investigation, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. discovered that the rent actually should have been far lower because the landlord was fraudulently claiming the apartment was free market.
Still, getting the rent to the lowest rate possible meant finding not merely that the landlord had cheated, but that it was part of a pattern. All the standard methods of research led only to hearsay. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. knew it was right, but proving it was the challenge. However, using unorthodox methods, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was able to unearth a previous order against the same landlord in which the DHCR had caught it doing the same thing.
This was exactly the break that the client needed.
Most important of all, there were no facts that would require a trial to prove, no contests of he said/she said. Everything could be relatively inexpensively determined on papers alone. Having unearthed a previous order against the landlord finding that the landlord had fraudulently manipulated the rents while accepting tax breaks requiring rent stabilization, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. had what it needed to convince the judge that there was no mistake on the landlord’s part. Rather, there was a pattern.
Indeed, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was able to show the judge that not only had the landlord satisfied the easier standards for “fraud” under recent changes to the law, but that Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. could also demonstrate that there was “fraud” under the far stricter ancient rules. As a result, the court sent the case out to a referee to determine both what the rent should be and what the award to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client should be—treble damages because of the fraud plus the client’s recovery of attorneys’ fees.
Dov Treiman and Carolyn Rualo prepared the papers and Eric Askanase did the oral argument.