DHCR Didn't Consider Rents of Larger Apartments

Tenant filed a fair market rent appeal. The DHCR ruled for tenant. Landlord appealed, claiming that the DHCR unfairly rejected comparability data landlord submitted for consideration in setting the fair market rent. The court and appeals court ruled against landlord. The comparables landlord presented were rents for three-room apartments in another line in the building. Tenant's apartment had two rooms. Landlord argued that tenant's apartment also had three rooms. But even if this was true, landlord didn't show that the square footage of the apartments in the other line was similar to that of tenant's apartment. The DHCR's rejection of landlord's comparables was reasonable.

Goldman v. DHCR: NYLJ, 4/8/04, p. 28, col. 6 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; Tom, JP, Saxe, Ellerin, Lerner, Gonzalez, JJ)