Loft tenant filed a petition to annul a New York City Loft Board’s amended final determination that the fourth floor consisted of two separate and distinct apartment units, claiming he was the occupant of the entire floor. SMC Associates, the owner of a loft at 329 Greenwich Street, filed plans to legalize two units on the fourth floor of the building. Longtime tenant Stephen Grant challenged the legalization plan, claiming that the space on the … <Read More>
Search Results for: Land Use Law
Trump Village Loses Utility Claim
Residents of Trump Village challenged size of rent reduction when Trump Village switched to individual electric metering. Trump Village, located at 2940 Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, has 433 rent-regulated apartments. In January 2006, Trump Village applied to the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal to convert Trump Village to individual electric metering and to separate the cost of electricity from rent payments of tenants. In June 2006, the Division approved Trump Village’s application, including … <Read More>
Condo Owner Loses Support Claim for Party Wall
Condo which used former party wall only as a façade wanted former party wall partner to pay for maintenance. Prior to 1927, two tenements along West 61st Street were joined together by a party wall. In 1927, the owner of the building at 211 West 61st Street tore down the tenement and built a seven-story building. The new building incorporated the former party wall as a façade only, the wall itself no longer providing support. … <Read More>
Basement apartment ruled legal; Condo’s “peace” sign ruled illegal
Buildings charged that owner unlawfully converted basement into additional rental apartment. In 2013 the Department of Buildings charged the owner of 345 W 70th Street, a multiple dwelling, with creating an illegal apartment in the basement. At the administrative hearing, Buildings submitted three I-cards for the building from 1916, 1938 and 1945. Before 1938, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development used I-cards to record the occupancy and arrangement of the buildings HPD had inspected. … <Read More>
De Facto Taking Claim Fails
Owner claimed de facto taking when City installed storm drains that flooded land designated as a wetland. The firm 594 Associates, Inc. acquired vacant land on Staten Island in 1985. The land was designated freshwater wetlands or wetlands adjacent area, and therefore development was not permitted. On September 26, 2005, the City constructed a headwall on the property’s border with an adjacent street. The headwall contained an outlet for one of the adjacent street’s storm … <Read More>
Attorney General Settles with Developer for Concealing Prohibited Rent-Controlled Tenant Buyouts
Upper West Side developer must pay $540,000 dollars in settlement costs. On June 6, 2016 New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced reaching a settlement for $540,000 with 165 West 91st Street Holdings, LLC for the loss of two rent-controlled apartments in an Upper West Side building, while it was being converted into a condominium, as a result of prohibited agreements to buy-out tenancy rights. The LLC owns an apartment building at 165 … <Read More>