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 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 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.
In 2022, a new landlord who had bought the building attempted to evict him, despite his being current on rent. It wasn’t 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’s rent had since risen to $1,425.
“I was robbed for $1,000 a month for 20-something years. That’s how I felt,” Carroll said. “My apartment was in total decay. So, I paid an extra $1,000 a month for 20 years, and I didn’t even have a livable space.”
Tenants must request a unit’s rent history from the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal to confirm if it’s rent-stabilized. Once Carroll did, his attorney found he qualified for special protections against the landlord’s eviction attempt.
“I would never have known,” Carroll said. “They could have done anything to me, and I would’ve had to leave and never have known my rights.”
Court records show Carroll’s 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 “high rent vacancy” rule that allowed deregulation once rent passed a certain threshold after a tenant left.
Landlords could raise rent by making major, not routine, upgrades, but during eviction proceedings, Carroll’s landlord couldn’t 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.
“The 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,” Stoller wrote.
Carroll isn’t seeking reimbursement for the rent he’s already paid. For now, he’s waiting for the landlord to set a new rate, hoping it will be lower.
Brooklyn Democrat City Councilmember Sandy Nurse, who also discovered she’d 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.
“This 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,” Nurse said.
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.
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