The Real Deal New York

A group of tenants at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village has filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court charging that the complexes’ prior owner, MetLife, illegally collected market-rate rents for 3,000 apartments. The suit, which names MetLife and new owner Tishman Speyer, claims it was illegal for MetLife to collect benefits from the city’s J-51 property tax program and also remove apartments from rent regulation. The suit follows reports last week that Tishman Speyer was dramatically increasing rents on the complexes’ market-rate units. more [NYT]