Landlord Claims Apartment Is Unique

Tenants filed a fair market rent appeal challenging the first rent-stabilized rent for their apartment. Tenants moved into the apartment in 1976 at a monthly rent of $750. The DRA ruled for tenants and reduced the first rent to $460. This rent was based on special guidelines added to the prior maximum base rent (MBR), plus a 1/40th increase for apartment improvements. Landlord appealed, claiming that the apartment was unique. It had the floor size of the combined E and F lines of upper floors and additional space; it was on the ground floor; it combined residential and commercial usage; and it had seven rooms. The DHCR ruled against landlord. Landlord didn't claim the E and F lines were comparable. Only rent-controlled apartment rents were submitted from those lines to the DRA. Landlord claimed the MBR for the apartment didn't take into account its uniqueness, but when the apartment first became rent-controlled, this was presumably considered and incorporated into the rent. No unique features were added to the apartment between the time it was rent-controlled and when it became rent-stabilized.

Charles H. Greenthal Management Corp.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Dckt. No. EC 410243-RO (9/26/95) [8-page document]