Eviction Court Had No Authority to Cut Tenant’s Rent

What Happened: After spending more than $45,000 for improvements, a tenant claimed that it discovered that the premises it leased for five years for use as a hair salon was only 452 square feet rather than the 600 square feet the landlord represented. So the tenant asked for a rent break. When the landlord refused, it stopped paying rent, prompting the landlord to sue for eviction. The tenant claimed that the landlord made false representations about the square footage of the property and asked for the lease to be rescinded.