Hundreds of Brooklyn Renters to Get Payback From Overcharging Landlords

Landlords have been overcharging tenants in thousands of Brooklyn apartments, according to a report from the office of New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman. Is your building on the list?

The landlords were overcharging tenants in apartments that should have been rent stabilized in exchange for the 421-a tax break. The landlords got their money. But then they charged market-rate rents.

The state’s been getting a lot of media flack for its enormous lack of enforcement of the 421-a rent stabilization. Now, they’re trying to make up for it.

The newly established Real Estate Tax Compliance Program is taking greedy landlords to task, requiring them to pay back tenants and inform them of their rent-stabilized status, or give back the tax money.

Here’s a list of nine Brooklyn landlords who recently settled with the State and will be paying back their tenants:

• Aron Kapelyus, who owned 134 apartments in 10 buildings in Williamsburg Bed Stuy “systematically deprived all his tenants in those buildings of rent-stabilized leases,” according to the A.G. He will pay $103,500 to the City’s Affordable Housing – AG Settlement Fund and “has begun supplying all his tenants in the following buildings with the protections of a rent-stabilized lease for the first time.” The buildings are:
  — 241 South 2^nd Street in Williamsburg
  — 208 South 3^rd Street in Williamsburg
  — 120 South 2^nd Street in Williamsburg
  — 337 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg
  — 442 South 5^th Street in Williamsburg
  — 147 Maujer Street in Williamsburg
  — 543-545 Kosciuszko Street in Bedford Stuyvesant
  — 417-419 Hart Street in Bedford Stuyvesant
  — 367 Classon Avenue in Bedford Stuyvesant
  — 185-187 Clifton Place in Bedford Stuyvesant

• 2801 Emmons Avenue, LLC,  the developer of the 49 unit building located at 2801 Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay, “will now register all the apartments in that building as rent-stabilized, and will pay $49,000 in restitution to the City’s Affordable Housing – AG Settlement Fund and a further $75,000 in penalties, fees and costs to the State” said the A.G.

• 782 Hart St. Realty Inc., in Bushwick “will now provide rent-stabilized leases to the 19 families living there and pay $47,500 in restitution to the City’s Affordable Housing – AG Settlement Fund.”

• 1997 Ocean Avenue, LLC will provide rent stabilized leases to 12 families residing at the Midwood address. The developer will also pay $12,000 in restitution to the City’s Affordable Housing – AG Settlement Fund, the A.G. said.

• Ten families at 630 Metropolitan Avenue in Williamburg “will receive rent-stabilized leases and the building owner 630 Metropolitan Avenue LLC has agreed to pay $10,000 in restitution to the City’s Affordable Housing – AG Settlement Fund.”

• Eight families at 271 Nassau Avenue in Greenpoint “will be receiving rent-stabilized leases, and the developer of that building will pay $8,000 in restitution to the City’s Affordable Housing – AG Settlement Fund.”

• In South Slope, “the developer of the building at 187 23^rdStreet, 187 23^rd Street, LLC, will now provide rent-stabilized leases to the 7 families residing there and pay $10,000 in restitution to the City’s Affordable Housing – AG Settlement Fund,” said the A.G.

• Charal Corporation, the developer of 131 Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, will offer “rent-stabilized leases to the six families living there, and will also pay $6,000 to in restitution to the City’s Affordable Housing – AG Settlement Fund.”

• A developer of 90 Clay Street in Greenpoint, aka 90 Clay Street LLC, “will pay $40,000 in restitution to the City’s Affordable Housing – AG Settlement Fund and a further $20,000 in penalties, fees and costs to the State.”

And here’s a full list of 39 Brooklyn landlords that still haven’t owned-up to their over-charging, taken from the A.G.’s statement:

For more information, you can read Schneiderman’s full announcement here.

Related Stories
Brooklyn Landlords Dodge 421-a Requirements
Report: While Developers Exploit Tax Breaks at Tenants’ Expense, City Does Little
The Ins and Outs of 421-a, the New York Tax Break You’ve Never Heard Of

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