Rent-stabilized owners seeking the Article XI tax break are real estate’s version of Andy Dufresne. Who could forget the wrongly imprisoned character played by Tim Robbins in “The Shawshank Redemption”? Dufresne’s escape was an act of desperation requiring intricate planning, years of paperwork and a 500-yard crawl through raw sewage. But it was his only way out of an unjust, punishing situation. Many owners are in the business equivalent of that bind, with the city and state having frozen their rent as expenses inexorably rise. “It’s brutal,” said one, whose family has a slew of Washington Heights properties with unaffordable […]

This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story.