The effect of those costs was compounded through the years, as every approved rent increase built upon the starting point. And while some portion was certainly legitimate, even a $10-a-month increase because of a padded All County invoice would mean that Mr. Leitner had given his landlords at least $3,800 more than they were legally entitled to over the past 22 years.
Housing advocates have long argued that there is widespread abuse of the two programs that owners of rent-regulated apartments use to raise rents based on improvements or repairs. Two Albany lawmakers introduced legislation last August that would end one, known as Major Capital Improvements.
“The M.C.I. program has been subject to abuse by landlords for years — the fact the Trump family did it just highlights that,” said one of the lawmakers, state Senator Michael N. Gianaris, a Queens Democrat. “It’s time to scrap the program.”
Because the increases carry forward, even tenants who moved in years after the Trumps sold the last of their father’s empire in 2004 were affected by the family’s invoice-padding scheme.