Landlord Gets MCI Rent Hikes for New Apartment Doors and Locks

Landlord applied for MCI rent increases based on installation of 32 apartment doors, marble door saddles, Mortise locksets, Segal locks, peep chime viewers, and safety chains. The DRA ruled for landlord and granted rent increases. Tenants appealed and lost. The replacement of the building's apartment doors met the criteria of an MCI and the prior doors' useful life had expired. In response to a few tenant complaints and DHCR inspection while its application was pending, landlord repaired a gap condition on three doors and fixed the locks on two doors. Tenants now claimed that the work wasn't performed in a workmanlike manner and that the apartment doors installed weren't of better or equal quality of the prior doors. But the selection of the type of doors installed, including style and features, was within landlord's discretion. Tenants' claim that the new doors were aesthetically and mechanically inferior was insufficient to overcome landlord's documentation of a proper installation. 

Yapp/Kelly: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. FP430046RT (11/19/20) [2-pg. doc.]