Mann Realty to pay $877K, prorate rent for overcharging tenant

Maurice Mann’s Mann Realty was ordered to pay hefty compensation to one of its Upper West Side tenants after a judge ruled they’d overcharged him for years.

Lane Altschuler, a resident of 478 Central Park West, will receive a $877,000 refund and have his $3,750-a-month rent reduced to below $800 a month.

The construction supervisor argued that his apartment was illegally removed from rent stabilization. His decision to sue was prompted by a 2009 state appeals court ruling that found landlords can’t remove apartments from rent regulation at buildings receiving tax subsidies, the New York Post reported.

Mann received $310,000 in J-51 tax benefits when it created 26 new condo units at the building, beginning in 2012.

The damages were equal to three times the amount Mann was found to have overcharged.

The extreme penalties that the appellate court has now upheld, without any trial, are “unprecedented,” Magda Cruz, Mann’s lawyer, told the Post.

“The owner in this case is like thousands of other owners throughout New York City who had rented their vacated apartments in reliance upon the interpretation of the luxury deregulation law prior to Roberts,” she added, referring to the 2009 ruling. [NYP] – Ariel Stulberg