Cracked Paint/Plaster Under Stairs Wasn't a Minor Condition

Rent-stabilized tenants complained to the DHCR about a reduction in building-wide services. The DRA ruled for tenants and reduced their rents based on findings that a washing machine in the building laundry room was unplugged and inoperable; the basement exit door was open at the time of DHCR inspection and constituted a safety hazard; the push bar for an exit door to the street was defective, didn't lock, and constituted a safety hazard; and there was evidence of cracked paint/plaster under the hallway stairs on the sixth-floor ceiling.

Landlord later filed an application to restore rents based on restoration of services. The DRA ruled against landlord, finding that the basement exit door and sixth-floor hallway ceiling conditions hadn't been restored.

Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that the peeling paint/plaster was a de minimis--that is, minor--condition. But tenants used the staircase for access to floors and this wasn't an isolated area. So this wasn't a minor condition. And it didn't matter that the basement exit door that was found open led tenants from inside the building to the courtyard where garbage bins were located and which was secured by a locked gate. 

Shara Associates LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. JV610024RO (4/28/22)[2-pg. document]