DHCR Must Consider Leases Submitted on Appeal

(Decision submitted by Benjamin Binder of the Manhattan law firm of Shaw & Binder, attorneys for the landlord.) Tenant filed an unsigned, undated objection to landlord's 1984 rent registration, and included a fair market rent appeal. Landlord defaulted, and the DRA decided the fair market rent appeal in tenant's favor. Landlord appealed and submitted leases for the first time with its PAR. The DHCR refused to accept landlord's documents at the PAR level, and landlord appealed. The court ruled for landlord and sent the case back for further processing. The court stated that, in this case, landlord's proof should be accepted because landlord acquired the building only weeks before the tenant signed his first lease; the DRA didn't send landlord a copy of tenant's objection until October 1987; there was confusion as to which lease landlord was required to submit; and landlord showed it had difficulty getting that lease. The facts also showed that tenant wasn't, as ruled by the DHCR, the first rent-stabilized tenant of the apartment.

[Melohn v. NYS DHCR: Index No. 11785/92 (1/20/93) (Sup. Ct. NY; Lehner, J)]. 1-page document.