Building Was Exempt from Rent Stabilization Due to Substantial Rehab

Landlord applied in 2019 for a DHCR ruling that its building was exempt from rent stabilization based on substantial rehabilitation. Landlord bought the building in 2008, and submitted proof, including DOB job records, of renovations done between December 2008 and May 2009. The DRA ruled for landlord and found sufficient proof that landlord replaced at least 75 percent of the building-wide and apartment systems listed in DHCR Operational Bulletin 95-2. But the DHCR found that one tenant in the building remained rent stabilized.

Landlord appealed and won. The DRA had relied on a prior DHCR order that it said found the apartment was rent stabilized. But, in that prior order, the DHCR simply ruled that, absent evidence to the contrary, there was no reason to assume that the apartment wasn't rent stabilized. There was no specific ruling in the prior order concerning substantial rehabilitation of the building. And the DRA found that the building had been substantially rehabilitated by 2010. Tenant didn't move into the building until 2014. So tenant wasn't subject to rent stabilization.

1012 Willoughby LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. KN210018RO (7/15/22)[6-pg. document]