Explanatory Addenda to 2018 Deregulation Order Continued Rent Stabilization Coverage

June 18, 2021

LVT Number: #31433

Landlord applied for high-rent/high-income deregulation of tenants' rent-stabilized apartment in 2018. The DRA issued a deregulation order for landlord in December 2018 based on tenants' admission that their total annual income exceeded $200,000 in 2016 and 2017. Later, the DRA issued an Explanatory Addendum (EA), which clarified that the apartment would be deregulated only after the renewal lease in effect when the deregulation order was issued expired.

Landlord applied for high-rent/high-income deregulation of tenants' rent-stabilized apartment in 2018. The DRA issued a deregulation order for landlord in December 2018 based on tenants' admission that their total annual income exceeded $200,000 in 2016 and 2017. Later, the DRA issued an Explanatory Addendum (EA), which clarified that the apartment would be deregulated only after the renewal lease in effect when the deregulation order was issued expired. Since that renewal lease expired after June 14, 2019, when the HSTPA provisions ending deregulation became effective, tenants' apartment couldn't be deregulated.

Landlord appealed the EA and lost, then filed an Article 78 petition claiming that the EA was arbitrary and unreasonable. The court ruled against landlord. High-income deregulation orders became effective on the date an apartment's lease expired, not on the date that the order was issued. Because the lease for the apartment didn't expire until July 31, 2019, the December 2018 deregulation order didn't effect a deregulation before HSTPA went into effect. 

215 E. 68th St. L.P. v. DHCR: Index No. 159718/2020, 2021 NY Slip Op 31711(U)(Sup. Ct. NY; 5/20/21; Edmead, J)

Topics

More like this