New York's attorney general says Brooklyn High Rise LLC agreed September 18 to pay $150,000 in restitution to certain apartment applicants who paid a 'good faith deposit' but withdrew or were denied housing and did not get it back. The state also imposed $202,250 in penalties for unlawful tenant blacklisting. The penalty goes to the state; it is not another pool of individual deposit refunds.
According to the office, the firm denied housing to more than 200 applicants using prior housing-court records, contrary to New York's protections. It also charged applicants $500 to $750 to hold units while processing applications, promising the money would go toward rent but failing to return some deposits. The agreement requires it to stop seeking housing-court history in screening and change its application practices.
An applicant who dealt with this firm should keep proof of the deposit, the application and any denial or withdrawal. The state release says all tenants meeting the restitution criteria will receive refunds, but it does not establish that every person ever rejected by a Brooklyn landlord gets a check. If you have a separate screening issue, check the state's guidance and document what the landlord requested; Financialist's general debt guides do not replace tenant-rights advice.