COURT OPINION MAY LEAD TO AUDIT

housing advocates and elected officials applauded the march 6 state appeals court's ruling against the owner of stuyvesant town and peter cooper village as a major victory for tenant rights. the court ruled that tishman speyer, the developer, wrongfully raised rents and deregulated apartments for market value despite receiving affordable housing tax breaks formally called a j-51 tax benefit. now, assembly member linda rosenthal is calling on the state to review all property owned by landlords receiving the tax break to determine if apartments were illegally deregulated. "landlords who benefit from the j-51 tax breaks are prohibited from deregulating the apartments in their buildings," rosenthal wrote in a letter. "it is essential that the city and state investigate this matter at once and remedy any breaches of the law."