Building with Converted Garage Unit Contained Six Apartments

The DHCR Rent Administrator made a determination that landlord's building contained six apartments and therefore was subject to rent stabilization. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that the building had five apartments, as reflected in a Certificate of Occupancy from the 1920s. But the DRA correctly found after a hearing that a sixth apartment was added after 1999 by converting a garage space adjacent to the building to a housing accommodation. Although the unit wasn't being used residentially at the time of DHCR inspection in 2015, tenant testimony and Con Edison and Department of Finance records showed that the unit had been used residentially after September 1999. 

1357 Teller Square Corp.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. EQ610003RO (4/20/18) [3-pg. doc.]