The New York State Attorney General cracked down on an Upper East side co-op that skirted rent stabilization laws.
Attorney General Barbara Underwood said the owner of the co-op at 417 East 60th Street acquired all the shares in the property in 2015 and then began renting units out to people who weren’t protected by the state’s rent stabilization laws, Patch.com reported.
The six-story building had been a rent-stabilized property until 1984, when it was converted to a co-op, the AG’s office said.
“Sham cooperatives acting as rental properties diminish opportunities for homeownership and fail to provide rent stabilized protections for New York tenants,” Underwood said in a statement. “At a time when affordable housing is so scarce, my office will continue working to preserve critical protections for tenants and ensure more housing is made available to New Yorkers.”
Per the terms of the settlement with the AG’s office, the landlord will have to abandon the property’s co-op plan and pay a $190,000 fine. [Patch] — Rich Bockmann