Apartment in Four-Unit Building Covered

Facts: Landlord sued to evict elderly tenants from a garden apartment in a four-unit building. Tenants claimed that they were rent-stabilized. Landlord had given tenants rent-stabilized renewal leases for many years. And tenants' building had been part of a garden apartment complex before its building systems and ownership were separated from the complex in 1986. Landlord claimed that the apartment wasn't rent-stabilized. In 1999, landlord had asked the DHCR to declare the building exempt from rent stabilization because the building had only four apartments. The DRA had ruled for landlord, and tenants didn't appeal. Court: Tenants win. The court noted that the DRA order was probably wrong, since the law and regulations do not permit the exemption of garden apartment complex buildings from stabilization based on severance from the complex after the base date. But the court also noted that it could not overturn the DRA's order. The court interpreted the DRA order as applying to the building as a whole, but not to tenants. Since tenants moved into the building before 1986, the year when the building was severed from the horizontal multiple dwelling complex, they remained subject to rent stabilization.

Lilu v. Musser: NYLJ, 11/22/00, p. 36, col. 1 (Civ. Ct. Queens; Franke, J)