Landlord Cleared Sufficient HPD Violations for MBR Increase

(Decision submitted by Joshua G. Losardo of the Manhattan law firm of Belkin Burden Wenig & Goldman LLP, attorneys for the landlord.)

Landlord applied for, and got, 2004-2005 maximum base rent (MBR) increases for rent-controlled tenants. Tenants challenged the increases and lost. Tenants then appealed, and lost again. Tenants claimed that because there were two rent-impairing violations and 17 nonrent-impairing violations on record, landlord was not entitled to the MBR increases. The DHCR said that its policy for any given MBR application is to review only those violations that were first recorded by the HPD since the time when the DHCR granted the last MBR application and up to the date specified in the regulations. Therefore, the DRA properly reviewed only new HPD violations issued between Jan. 1, 2001, and Jan. 1, 2003, to decide landlord's MBR application.

Goldstein: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. UF420035RT (1/10/07) [3-pg. doc.]