Lease assignment in rent stabilized building

Hi, I'm in a real bind...currently seeking to break my lease of a rent stabilized apartment about 7 months early. Here are the facts: Current rent: 1200 Current legal regulated rent: 2109+ Time remaining on lease: 7+ months I asked my landlord, in my effort to mitigate both our damages and in order to advertise the apartment accurately, what the new rent would be for any new tenant. The LL replied... [more]

Hi, I'm in a real bind...currently seeking to break my lease of a rent stabilized apartment about 7 months early. Here are the facts: Current rent: 1200 Current legal regulated rent: 2109+ Time remaining on lease: 7+ months I asked my landlord, in my effort to mitigate both our damages and in order to advertise the apartment accurately, what the new rent would be for any new tenant. The LL replied with $2400+/month, which lawfully reflects a 15% vacancy increase of the legal regulated rent. That's obviously way over market and they'd never fill the space at that rate, so then I decided to request permission to assign my lease to someone else. Can they raise the rent when an assignment is requested? Isn't an assignment basically a transfer of my lease terms to a new tenant, and if that's true, won't this new tenant only need qualify based on my current lease terms? I proposed a new tenant to them in my letter (requesting permission to assign)...he met all of the requirements of my current lease (annual income 45x monthly rent, great credit, references, etc.), but when I called the LL to follow up they said he did not qualify bc his annual income was not greater than 45x the NEW monthly rent of $2400+. Does anyone know the specifics here? Can they raise the rent upon a lease assigment? The law in question: Real Property Law § 226-b(1): Found here, pages 11-12 http://www.ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/pdfs/publications/Tenants_Rights.pdf Any insight or guidance would be greatly appreciated! [less]