Councilman: Tishman Speyer Dragnet at Stuy Town Snaring Innocent Tenants

Looks like the $5.4 billion landlord is having some trouble winning the hearts and minds of some of its residents.

Tishman Speyer, which bought the 11,200-apartment Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village for that record amount in late 2006, has been pursuing illegal tenants subletting from rent-stabilized tenants for more than a year now, presumably in an attempt to get a better return on its investment. After all, landlords tend to get a whole lot more money from market-rate units than from the rent-regulated ones; and illegal tenants are, well, illegal.

But as tuna fishermen do to dolphins, the firm seems to be catching a whole lot of innocent tenants as they cast a net for illegal sublets, or so claims Councilman Daniel Garodnick, a resident himself of Peter Cooper Village.

“Too many legitimate rent-stabilized tenants are being asked to defend themselves against false accusations that they are not legally entitled to their apartment,” Mr. Garodnick wrote in a letter to Tishman’s president, Rob Speyer, late last month. “The posture toward tenants is increasingly being viewed as radical, and is having a deleterious effect on the community.”

Tishman has been sending rent-stabilized tenants notices of nonrenewal when it comes across records that lead it to believe a tenant could be illegally subletting. Mr. Garodnick, saying such notices were going to too many legal residents, called for a moratorium on the notices. Numbers provided to Mr. Garodnick in October suggest that about 50 percent of those who were sent notices of nonrenewal ultimately gave up their apartments.

“We have no issue with Tishman Speyer preserving its rights, but we don’t want innocent tenants getting swept up in the process,” Mr. Garodnick said in an interview.

A spokesman for Tishman Speyer, Bud Perrone, said the company has been in frequent contact with Mr. Garodnick, and the notices in question only go out when there is evidence to think a tenant is not using the home as his or her primary residence.

“We consider each case carefully and on an individual basis, and only send notices when we have a good-faith belief as to our assertion of nonprimary residence,” Mr. Perrone said in a statement. “Any resident who receives a notice can contact us to discuss it, and we will set up a time to meet and talk about their particular case if a resident wishes.”