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Chinatown couple wants to pay rent like it’s 1999: Lawsuit
The last time their landlord registered the unit the rent was under $200
Talk about partying like it is 1999. Kirill Nikonov and Kaimi Huang have stumbled across what could be a very sweet deal: a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan for just $199.15 a month. But, like so many things, it’s likely too good to be true.
Nikonov and Huang currently pay $1,550 a month for a rent-stabilized apartment in on Orchard Street in Chinatown. But according to a new lawsuit they filed against their landlord, their rent should be 87 percent lower.
The last time the landlord registered tenants for the rent-stabilized space was back in 1999 when the rent was $199.15 a month. That’s the rent they say they should be paying, according to a lawsuit they filed against their landlord uncovered by the New York Post.
“The most recent registered legal regulated rent is $199.15,” making the lease Nikonov and Huang signed in March “null and void,” according to the lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court against Landlord John Chan of Orchard St. Realty.
Chan is attempting “to avoid awarding tenants of the building with the benefits provided by the rent-stabilization law,” the suit claims. [NYP] –Christopher Cameron