Landlord Can Substitute Telephone Intercom for Bell/Buzzer

Landlord asked the DHCR to approve a modification of building-wide services by substituting a traditional, hard-wired intercom system with a telephone-based cell and/or landlord intercom system. The DRA ruled for landlord but also said that, to offset the cost to tenants to maintain a landline phone, tenants' legal rents were permanently reduced by $15 per month. This was the approximate cost of basic telephone service.

Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord pointed out that all 20 tenants in the building had consented in advance to the service modification and that one half of the affected apartments had legal rents below $500. So, the percentage of the imposed rent decrease was disproportionately high, in some cases more than 8 percent of tenants' rents. It would also take many years to make up the difference given the currently low rent guidelines increases. None of the tenants opposed landlord's PAR. Still, the DHCR ruled that it was the DHCR's practice to approve intercom changeovers from traditional bell/buzzer systems to telephone-based systems. And the DHCR in turn required that all apartments have a touch-tone landline phone to maintain intercom service to the apartment and that tenants be given a permanent rent reduction to offset the cost for maintenance of the landline phone.

561 Lenox Avenue LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. FP430032RO (3/3/18) [2-pg. doc.]