Apartment Was Vacancy Deregulated After Rent-Controlled Tenant Moved Out

Tenant claimed that he was rent stabilized. The DRA dismissed tenant’s fair market rent appeal and found that tenant’s apartment was unregulated. Tenant appealed and lost. Tenant claimed that the apartment hadn’t been registered with the DHCR since 1984. In 1984, the apartment was rent controlled. The rent-controlled tenant moved out in 2000, and new, prior, tenant moved in at a monthly rent of $2,800. Rent Stabilization Code Section 2520.11(r)(4) provides that an apartment that becomes vacant on or after June 1, 1997, but before June 24, 2011, with a legal rent of $2,000 or more per month, isn’t subject to rent stabilization. Prior tenant’s rent was more than $2,000 in July 2000. Therefore, the apartment was already deregulated when tenant moved in in 2013 at $3,500 per month. Tenant’s fair market rent appeal also was untimely since it was filed more than 14 years after the rent-controlled tenant moved out. Landlord’s failure to send an RR-1 form or otherwise advise the first tenant after rent control of a change in the apartment’s rent regulatory status didn’t extend the four-year deadline to file a fair market rent appeal.

Katz: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. DU410066RT (1/26/16) [4-pg. doc.]