\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby Jeroslyn JoVonn <\/p>\n
September 8, 2025<\/p>\n
A Harlem man overpaid on rent for 20 years before learning his apartment was rent-stabilized.<\/p>\n
Richard Carroll Jr. is receiving some relief after nearly being evicted from his Harlem apartment, where he had unknowingly overpaid rent on his stabilized unit for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n
Carroll, an artist, moved <\/a>into the apartment in 2004, believing $1,200 a month was a good deal, although he was told the official rent was $2,000, according to a Gothamist <\/em>report. Over time, the unit fell apart with a broken stove, decaying windowsills, faulty lights, a bedroom door off its hinges, and rats in the kitchen wall.<\/p>\n In 2022, a new landlord who had bought the building attempted to evict him, despite his being current on rent. It wasn\u2019t until Carroll decided to fight back that he discovered the unit had been rent-stabilized until his move-in. Court records revealed the previous tenant paid under $500 a month, while Caroll\u2019s rent had since risen to $1,425.<\/p>\n \u201cI was robbed for $1,000 a month for 20-something years. That\u2019s how I felt,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cMy apartment was in total decay. So, I paid an extra $1,000 a month for 20 years, and I didn\u2019t even have a livable space.\u201d<\/p>\n Tenants must request a unit\u2019s rent history from the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal to confirm if it\u2019s rent-stabilized. Once Carroll did, his attorney found he qualified for special protections against the landlord\u2019s eviction attempt.<\/p>\n \u201cI would never have known,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cThey could have done anything to me, and I would\u2019ve had to leave and never have known my rights.\u201d<\/p>\n Court records show Carroll\u2019s apartment was rent-stabilized from the 1980s through the early 2000s, with the legal rent listed at $489.50 in 2002. The following year, the landlord claimed the unit was exempt under a now-defunct \u201chigh rent vacancy\u201d rule that allowed deregulation once rent passed a certain threshold after a tenant left. <\/p>\n Landlords could raise rent by making major, not routine, upgrades, but during eviction proceedings, Carroll\u2019s landlord couldn\u2019t prove enough work had been done. Housing court judge, Jack Stoller, ruled that while deregulation would have required over $56,000 in renovations, records showed only about $22,000 in improvements.<\/p>\n \u201cThe preponderance of the evidence, therefore, shows that Respondent is a Rent-Stabilized tenant of the subject premises and an eviction proceeding without cause does not lie,\u201d Stoller wrote.<\/p>\n Carroll isn\u2019t seeking reimbursement for the rent he\u2019s already paid. For now, he\u2019s waiting for the landlord to set a new rate, hoping it will be lower.<\/p>\n Brooklyn Democrat City Councilmember Sandy Nurse, who also discovered she\u2019d been overpaying for a rent-stabilized apartment, sponsored a bill passed earlier this year requiring landlords to post signs informing tenants about regulated units and how to confirm if their apartment is rent-stabilized.<\/p>\n \u201cThis lack of knowledge is really beneficial to landlords, of course, who want to continue to raise the rent and get their units out of the stabilization regime,\u201d Nurse said.<\/p>\n Nurse is helping tenants in her building understand their rights, emphasizing that during each lease renewal, they should challenge any proposed rent increases that violate the law.<\/p>\n RELATED CONTENT: <\/strong>ELEVATE YOUR EXCELLENCE: Raychel Proudie Is A Dedicated Public Servant Shaping A Brighter Future for Missouri<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Jeroslyn JoVonn September 8, 2025 A Harlem man overpaid on rent for 20 years before learning his apartment was rent-stabilized. Richard Carroll Jr. is receiving some relief after nearly being evicted from his Harlem apartment, where he had unknowingly overpaid rent on his stabilized unit for more than 20 years. Carroll, an artist, moved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10666],"tags":[10273,903,9150,2171,19370,19369,19371,19368,801],"class_list":["post-29101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reparations","tag-apartment","tag-harlem","tag-learns","tag-man","tag-nyc-rent","tag-rent-stabilized","tag-rentstabilized","tag-tenant-rights","tag-years"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2024\/01\/iStock-1485841999-scaled.jpg",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"REPARATIONS NEWS<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"by Jeroslyn JoVonn September 8, 2025 A Harlem man overpaid on rent for 20 years before learning his apartment was rent-stabilized. Richard Carroll Jr. is receiving some relief after nearly being evicted from his Harlem apartment, where he had unknowingly overpaid rent on his stabilized unit for more than 20 years. Carroll, an artist, moved…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29103,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29101\/revisions\/29103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}