Creation of Additional Rooms in Cellar Changed Room Count

The DRA granted landlord's application for MCI rent hikes based on the installation of a new staircase, sprinklers, video intercom system, rewiring, pointing, and waterproofing. Tenants appealed and won, in part. Tenants claimed that landlord's room count was inaccurate because new rooms had been added to the building. The DHCR stated that alterations to an apartment that result in the creation of a new room without any actual change to the overall square footage of the apartment aren't sufficient to warrant a change in the room count for MCI purposes. But a cellar space beneath apartments 1A and 1B had been converted into two new recreation rooms that meet the DHCR's definition of a room for MCI purposes. So two rooms were added to the total room count, which reduced the total MCI increase per room.

Lang: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. BS430022RT (8/10/17) [3-pg. doc.]