Court Grants Tenant's Request for Pretrial Questioning

Landlord sued to evict tenant, claiming that the apartment was unregulated. Tenant claimed that the apartment was rent stabilized and had been improperly deregulated. Landlord and tenant agreed to mark the case off calendar while the DHCR decided tenant’s rent overcharge complaint. The DHCR ruled that the apartment wasn’t rent stabilized, and landlord then brought the eviction proceeding back to court. The court then granted tenant’s request for pretrial questioning concerning individual apartment improvements that were done 15 years earlier. Landlord argued that this was improper since the DHCR already decided that the apartment was deregulated. But the DHCR’s decision was based on records indicating that the apartment rent was more than $2,000 in 2002. This information was supplied by landlord. And the court could look back more than four years to determine whether the apartment was properly deregulated. 

24-03 41st LLC v. Bao: Index No. 68748/16, NYLJ No. 1202780069624 (Civ. Ct. Queens; 2/3/17; Nembhard, J)