DHCR Can't Consider Corporate Income in Deregulation Case

Landlord applied for high-rent/high-income deregulation of rent-stabilized tenants’ apartment in 2008. The DRA ruled against landlord after finding that tenants’ annual household income for both 2006 and 2007 was under $175,000. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that several corporate businesses were operated out of tenants’ apartment and that the incomes of these entities should also have been considered. But the DHCR doesn’t have the authority to independently investigate tenants’ income. It can only seek to match income information filed by tenants with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. The Rent Stabilization Code also limits what can be verified to individual “federal adjusted gross income.” The DHCR can’t consider corporate income.

Briarcliff 57 LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. XK410013RO (1/6/10) [4-pg. doc.]