Apartment Not Vacancy Decontrolled

(Decision submitted by Benjamin Binder of the Manhattan law firm of Shaw & Binder, attorneys for the landlord.) Tenant filed a fair market rent appeal. The DRA ruled for tenant and reduced the apartment's first stabilized rent. Landlord appealed, claiming that the initial stabilized rent wasn't subject to a fair market rent appeal. Landlord pointed out that the apartment was decontrolled in March 1971 because it was used professionally by rent-controlled tenant, not because of a vacancy. The DHCR ruled for landlord. The Rent Stabilization Law states that the initial legal regulated rent for units other than those that became subject to stabilization because of vacancy decontrol is the rent charged on June 30, 1974, or on the later date that the apartment first became rent-stabilized. Tenant's apartment was never vacancy decontrolled, so the first stabilized rent wasn't subject to fair market rent adjustment. The June 30, 1974 rent was the initial legal regulated rent.

Snowflake Development Corp.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Dckt. No. DJ410316RO (3/26/97) [2-page document]