Kush ‘scheme’

Jared firm dodged rent regs in B’klyn – suit

JARED KUSHNER’S real estate company systematically screwed some Brooklyn tenants out of rent-stabilized leases, a lawsuit charged Tuesday.

The suit, filed by the Housing Rights Initiative in Brooklyn Supreme Court, revolves around a 48-unit rent-stabilized building at 89 Hicks St. bought by Kushner Companies in 2014.

The building had served as student housing for Brooklyn Law School and was exempt from rent-stabilization laws.

But once Kushner Companies purchased the Brooklyn Heights building and began renting apartments as residential units, they should have been reregistered as rent-stabilized, the suit claims.

The company ignored that requirement, papers charge.

In 2014, Kushner registered only five units as rent-stabilized. As of this year, no apartments are listed as stabilized, according to papers.

“All of those apartments should still be affordable,” said Aaron Carr, the founder of the Housing Rights Initiative. “We have never seen a scheme as blatant, willful and egregious as this one.”

The suit alleges that Kushner Companies also failed to notify the state that it was offering market-rate leases instead of rentstabilized ones.

The class action suit was filed by nine current and former tenants of the building. Over 100 tenants could have claims against the real estate company, Carr said.

He estimated that tenants could claim in court they were overcharged rents in excess of $1 million.

The Housing Rights Initiative is also reviewing more than 50 other Kushner properties in the city, Carr said.

A Kushner Companies spokesman said the suit was under review.

Jared Kushner, a White House senior adviser and President Trump’s son-in-law, stepped down as CEO of Kushner Companies in January.

He retained ownership of the real estate giant, which owns properties mainly in New York and New Jersey. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, disclosed that their business empire is worth as much as $761 million.