A fed-up Manhattan landlord — who became the target of savvy cabbies using a legal loophole to land dirt-cheap apartments in his building near the High Line — is suing the state, city and one of the residents to end the scheme.
The owner of the Chelsea Highline Hotel, at 184 11th Ave., says the way the courts have interpreted laws related to buildings like his former SRO is “unconstitutional” and “tantamount to taking property without due process.”
In one recent ruling, Manhattan Housing Court Judge Sabrina Kraus granted cabby Hamidou Guira a lifelong $226-a-month lease after he stayed just one night at the hotel.
A little-known section of the city rent-stabilization law says an SRO occupant who “requests a lease of six months or more . . . shall be a permanent tenant.”
Kraus’ decision means others could claim rights to units for next to nothing, according to court papers filed by building owner Skybox Chelsea LLC. The entity is controlled by Israeli real-estate developer John Leitersdorf and partner John Jacobsen, according to a source familiar with the building.
Guira was followed by TLC-licensed driver Oltimdje Ouattara, who is also trying to land a permanent place in the building.
In a neighborhood where studio rents top $3,000, he could wind up paying nothing, since the apartment has no record with the state. The listed rent for his unit, 201, is zero, the suit says.
“It is unfathomable that such an outcome was intended by the drafters of these various sections of the code,” the suit says.
Leitersdorf’s suit says Joe Stevens, a longtime resident and cabdriver, is “a self-styled crusader against the project [who] has made a name for himself by attracting individuals new to the state (and sometimes the country), advising them to seek permanent residency at Chelsea Highline.”
Stevens, who pays just over $200 rent for his unit, has told The Post he steers people to low-cost housing.
Ouattara is due in court later this month before Judge Kraus to fight for the room, from which he was evicted by the landlord.
The case to close the rent loophole will continue in October.