Landlord Can Replace Incinerator with Compactor

Landlord asked the DHCR for permission to modify building services by converting a refuse disposal system from an incinerator to a compactor. The DRA ruled for landlord and found that no permanent rent reduction was warranted since the compactor system was an adequate substitute for the prior system with no decrease in required services.

Tenant appealed and lost. Tenant claimed that, when the refuse system was converted, one of the building's two trash chutes was sealed. Therefore, rents should be reduced. But the disposal system conversion actually took place in 1973, under DOB-approved plans. The trash chute on the north side of the building was sealed at that time. Tenants had been using the trash chute on the building's south side since then. The single chute system had been in place for over 45 years. And the passage of four or more years without a complaint of a decrease in services was presumptive proof that the change in conditions here was minor. The fact that HPD had issued a violation for the sealing of the north chute wasn't, in itself, proof that the change amounted to a decrease in services warranting a rent reduction. 

Robinson: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. GS410029RT (9/20/19) [2-pg. doc.]