Court rules owner can get increase for damages.

New York County Civil Court, in a precedent setting decision, recently ruled that owners of rent regulated properties (i.e. controlled and stabilized) can collect for tenant-caused malicious or negligent property damage in the form of court ordered temporary rent increases.

Previously, seeking to recover damages in rent regulated apartments was neither cost-effective nor feasible because the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) held such charges for alleged tenant caused property damage to be rent overcharge.

The new precedent for landlord claims was set in a case brought by the Manhattan Law Firm of Breier, Deutschmeister and Urban, PC, and heard by Bruce J. Gould, Civil Court Hearing Judge.

The landlord client, Mikos and Matilda Kiss, at 507 W. 168th Street, sued a tenant of a rent stabilized apartment for $4,259.98. This sum included $2,265 for water damage to the apartment below from an illegally installed washing machine. The decision held jurisdiction, in such cases resides in the Civil Court, "as apparently," according to attorney Jason Deutschmeister, does jurisdiction to order the tenant to pay the sum awarded upon hearing, as additional compensatory rent over a 12-month period.

"The decision," said Deutschmeister, "means tenants of rent regulated apartments who cause damage no longer have immunity before the courts for wrongful acts by claiming damage charges are rent overcharges. "

Text of the court decision is available from Jason Deutschmeister, BD&U, PC, 321 Broadway, New York, New York 10007. (Kiss vs. Gomez. Civ. Ct., NY Co. Memo Decis., 5/12/92)