New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced a settlement agreement with Vantage Properties that required it to stop harassing tenants in its 9,500 apartments in Manhattan and Queens with "baseless legal notices" and "frivolous housing court evictions" to get them to vacate so it could rent them out as "market-rate" units.

The agreement stipulated that the landlord, who acquired the properties in 2006, to pay a $1 million fine. Three-quarters of the fine is earmarked for residents and the remainder for non-profit groups that help tenants.

Last month, Mr. Cuomo's office said he intended to sue Vantage, which is headed by Neil Rubler, because it had found it had filed more than 1,000 notices against tenants and took a "significant number" to housing court and that in many cases Vantage had brought the case based on "unreliable sources" and that the tenants had rights to remain.

In an article by Charles V. Bagli in today's edition of The New York Times, Mr. Cuomo was quoted in a statement as saying that the agreement "not only preserves the rent-regulated apartments owned by them, but also sends a strong message that my office will continue to protect tenants and bring unscrupulous landlords to justice."

Orin Snyder, a lawyer for Vantage, was quoted in the article as stating that Vantage "welcomed the settlement because it gave them a clearer definition of some of the boundaries in managing affordable housing," adding that "This is a sector that for decades has been filled with tension and uncertainty about the rules between landlords and tenants; what we have now is really an unprecedented set of guidelines, ground rules, that govern the landlord-tenant relationship, and Vantage is and has been enthusiastic."

When he notified Vantage January 28 of his intent to sue, Mr. Cuomo said that "Landlords who illegally harass tenants to boost their bottom line do great harm to the fabric of the city," adding that "Their underhanded tactics displace longtime residents from their homes and exacerbate the acute affordable-housing shortage."

In an article in the January 28, 2010 edition of The New York Times, Charles V. Bagli noted that Vantage's financial partner, Apollo Real Estate Advisors, issued a statement expressing regret that Vantage had not yet reached an agreement with the attorney general "incorporating best practices and other tenant protections, which we fully support," adding that it expected "Vantage will work with Attorney General Cuomo's office to get this matter resolved quickly."

Vantage spent more than $2 billion at the height of the market in 2006 and 2007, buying about 125 buildings with more than 9,500 apartments in Queens, Washington Heights and Harlem.