The tenants and owners of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village say they are negotiating behind closed doors to settle unresolved back-rent issues following a landmark court decision last month.
While that’s good news for the parties involved — especially as Tishman Speyer Properties comes close to defaulting on its $3 billion mortgage — it means tens of thousands of New York landlords are left to wonder how to deal with the ruling.
The state Court of Appeals decided in October that the owners of the sprawling Manhattan complex have been illegally converting rent-stabilized apartments to market-rate rents. The precedent means city landlords are potentially liable for tens of millions of dollars in rent overcharges for raising rents to market rates while accepting tax benefits for maintaining rent-stabilized units.
But the court refused to address what might be owed and when, or what rents to charge under the new rules. Those issues were to be worked out by a lower court, which was to take over the StuyTown dispute.
The tenants and current owners, Tishman Speyer and BlackRock, are privately discussing the issues rather than duking it out in court.