Ever since the courts handed down the landmark Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village ruling, sending over 4,000 market-rate rental apartments back into the comforting embrace of rent stabilization, current market-rate renters in the massive complex have been waiting for the changes to go into effect. The Stuy Town Tenants Association had been advising renters to pay in full while lawyers for all sides hammered out an agreement, but soon everyone was getting antsy. No longer, as lawyers for the Stuy Town tenants as well as for landlord Tishman Speyer have just announced an interim agreement while the bigger issues (like refunds on years of rent overcharges) get sorted out. Apartments will return to rent-stabilized levels in January, and each affected tenant will be granted benefits—lease renewals under stabilized rates, succession rights—under the Rent Stabilization Law.

The statement, the agreement, the madness, the Rentpocalypse.

What follows is the joint statement issued by the attorneys, and for further reading here's the text of the actual agreement (warning: PDF): “Representatives of the property owner and counsel for the plaintiffs, Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP and Bernstein Liebhard LLP, today reached an interim agreement to adjust rents in each apartment affected by the recent Court of Appeals decision in Roberts v. Tishman Speyer Properties to an estimated rent-stabilized level for January and February 2010. The rent adjustment will be reflected in the January invoices that will shortly be sent to residents. During the interim agreement, each affected tenant will also be afforded certain rights available under the Rent Stabilization Law, including the right of renewal and succession rights.

“In addition, Tishman Speyer and BlackRock have reached agreement with counsel for the plaintiffs on a more inclusive, six-month agreement covering a wider range of unresolved issues beyond those addressed in the interim agreement. The six-month agreement, which is intended to achieve an expedited resolution of the Roberts case, is contingent upon consent by CW Capital, the special servicer acting on behalf of the property’s senior lenders.”

Tishman Speyer has a master list of what every market-rate apartment in Stuy Town would be paying under rent-stabilized rates (it had been required to put the difference into escrow while the appeal was being heard). The Stuy Town lawyers have access to that list, and you can bet they'll be flooded with queries from market-rate renters in 3, 2, 1...

Court Order on Stuy Town Interim Agreement [The Justice System]