Landlord Can Convert to Direct Electric Metering

Landlord asked the DHCR for permission to convert from inclusion of electricity in tenants' rents to direct metering, with a corresponding monthly rent reduction. The DRA ruled for landlord. Tenants appealed and lost. Tenants claimed that landlord should be required to convert to submetering instead of direct metering. Rent Stabilization Code Section 2522.4(d) and DHCR Operational Bulletin 2003-1 permit landlord to convert buildings from master metering to either direct metering or submetering. Neither the code nor the Operational Bulletin authorizes the DHCR to give preference to one method over the other. The amount of the rent reductions also were properly set in accordance with the DHCR's Operational Bulletin. And landlord submitted a proposal from an electrical contractor for rewiring that documented the planned conversion.

425 Riverside Drive: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. VL430008RT (8/5/09) [3-pg. doc.]