Four-Family Brownstone with at Least Two Additional Apartments Was Rent Stabilized

Tenant complaied to the DHCR, claiming that she was rent stabilized and that landlord refused to give her a lease. Landlord argued that the building was a four-family brownstone building and therefore not subject to rent stabilization. The building's Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) listed four units. Tenant claimed that there were six units: a garden apartment, two units on the second floor, two units on the third floor, and one apartment on the fourth floor. The DRA ruled for tenant, finding that the building contained six apartments.

Landlord appealed and lost. The DHCR's inspector had visited the buiding and found there was a sign for an attorney's office in the building cellar, but the office was no longer present and had been converted to an apartment. The second floor had two SRO units, and the third floor had two apartments. The complaining tenant lived in one of them. The fourth floor had also had an apartment. The inspector's report further stated that he found four apartments and four possible additional SRO units in the building. Even if the C of O listed four units at the pre-1974 building, the addition of housing accommodations at some later point made the building subject to rent stabilization. Landlord must offer the complaining tenant a rent-stabilized lease and register her apartment.

Arthur: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. JV210032RO (1/6/23)[7-pg. document]