The Legal Aid Society had filed an amended lawsuit to stop illegal apartment layout alterations initiated by the landlords, which threaten to displace long-term rent-stabilized tenants, as reported by Gothamist.

The lawsuit, against the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB), the New York State Department of Homes and Community Renewal (DHCR), and individual landlords, now includes tenants from 240 West 116th Street and 242 West 116th Street in Manhattan who were temporarily displaced from their apartments on February 8, 2022 due to a vacate order for hazardous conditions including inadequate fire exits, dangerous electrical wiring, lack of heat, leaks, and other issues.

The landlords of these buildings submitted plans to change the layouts of the units – seeking to reduce the number of bedrooms and living spaces for families and children while they are displaced – directly to the DOB, violating the law by circumventing the legal approval process.

Per New York’s Rent Stabilization Code, landlords are required to obtain approval to reconfigure apartment spaces from DHCR, the state agency which oversees the local rent-stabilized housing stock in New York City. Therefore, when DOB accepted the landlords’ submitted plans and issued permits – without any approval from DHCR – they violated the Rent Stabilization Laws and Code.

The new plaintiffs from the 116th Street buildings join tenants from Brooklyn, who were temporarily displaced after a fire ravaged their rent-stabilized building on November 3, 2021.

“Not only did our clients lose their belongings due to the landlord’s refusal to properly safeguard the building, but they now face the loss of their long-term apartments as the landlord seeks to subdivide these units by exploiting a loophole in the New York City Department of Building’s procedures,” said Adan Soltren, a supervising attorney of the Harlem Community Law Office at The Legal Aid Society.

“DOB can solve this now by better communicating with the State on these permits, and we call for better coordination to prevent this practice of substantially altering rent-stabilized apartments without State approval, for financial gain by unscrupulous landlords,” he continued.

The lawsuit seeks to annul and vacate the DOB’s permits for the landlords’ plans to reconfigure the units and stop the landlords from submitting plans that alter the apartments without DHCR approval. The complaint also seeks systemic changes to DOB’s policies to prevent the agency from approving plans without prior DHCR approval going forward.

This litigation is funded by the citywide Anti-Harassment Tenant Protection (AHTP) Program, which has served over 75,000 New York City tenants. AHTP is a crucial program that protects thousands of low-income tenants, largely from communities of color, across the City against landlord harassment, discrimination, and displacement.