Chelsea's London Terrace Gardens was one of the first buildings to test the waters with a rent regulation lawsuit following the Stuy Town decision. Tenants sued the building owners with the argument that they'd raised rents while receiving J-51 renovation tax breaks. London Terrace's owners, in return, asked to leave the J-51 program retroactively rather than have to reduce tenants' rents. The whole case made its way to the appellate court, which ruled yesterday that the building owners can't back out of the J-51 program now. A bit of the legal language from the decision, which a tipster kindly passed along:
There is no provision in the J-51 program for unilateral withdrawal from the program or for replaying the tax benefits in exchange for rescission from the program?.On the contrary, the Rules of the City of New York provide that 'rent regulation [requirements] shall not be terminated by the waiver or revocation of tax benefits.' The judges affirmed the defendants' motion to dismiss the landlords' petition. Nice try, though.
· London Terrace Says Thanks But No Thanks to Those Tax Breaks [Curbed]
· London Terrace coverage [Curbed]
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