Landlord Asked Tenant to Relocate

Tenant asked the DHCR to decide if she was rent controlled. The DRA ruled that tenant was rent controlled. Landlord appealed and lost. Tenant lived in a third-floor apartment from before July 1971 until 1992. That apartment was unquestionably rent controlled. Tenant claimed that landlord then asked tenant to move to a first-floor apartment temporarily while landlord renovated tenant's apartment. Tenant did so, but landlord then moved his family members into the third-floor apartment. Landlord claimed that tenant moved to the first floor at tenant's request because her mother couldn't climb the stairs. But landlord submitted no proof of this claim and gave tenant a reduced rent for the first year in the first-floor apartment. Because landlord apparently gave tenant a rent incentive, this was further proof that landlord, not tenant, asked for the relocation.

Gil: DHCR Adm. Rev. Dckt. No. QE220014RO (10/15/03) [2-pg. doc.]