DHCR Complied with HSTPA by Dismissing Pending LD Applications

Landlord filed three separate applications for high-rent/high-income deregulation of apartments in its building in 2018. In November 2019, the DRA dismissed all three applications based on the June 14, 2019, effective date of the HSTPA's prospective repeal of luxury deregulation.

Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord argued that the tenants had failed to answer the applications, that the DRA had retroactively applied the HSTPA amendments, that eliminating high-rent/high-income deregulation violated the takings clause and due process under the U.S. Constitution, and that the DRA's delay in processing its 2018 applications caused landlord harm.

The DHCR noted that the plain text of HSTPA obligated the DHCR to apply the amended law to landlord's cases, and this wasn't based on the DHCR's independent judgment. It also didn't matter that landlord's 2018 LD petitions were to be determined based on 2016 and 2017 household incomes. In addition, the DHCR was ruling on pending LD cases almost to the day that HSTPA was passed into law, so it wasn't delaying processing. The DHCR also didn't have the authority to rule on the constitutional questions raised by landlord. And no party has a vested right to any remedy under the Rent Stabilization Law.

195-97 West 10th Street Realty LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket Nos. HX410005RO, HX410106RO, HX410309RO (4/14/22)[5-pg. document]