Landlord Gets Rent Hikes for Improvements Done After Fire

Tenant complained of a rent overcharge. In June 2006, the DRA had reduced prior tenant's rent to $1 per month based on an apartment fire rendering the apartment uninhabitable. Landlord added 1/40th apartment improvement costs to the rent set after restoring the apartment. Tenant claimed that this was improper because prior tenant didn't consent in writing and the apartment wasn't considered vacant during the period that the apartment couldn't be occupied. The DRA ruled for tenant. Landlord appealed. Landlord argued, and the DHCR agreed, that since prior tenant didn't pay the $1 per month and never moved back into the apartment, the apartment was vacant. So landlord was entitled to add the cost of apartment improvements to the next rent-stabilized rent. The case was sent back to the DRA to determine whether landlord's claimed costs supported the amount of the rent increase.

16 West 125th Street Realty Corp.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket Nos. YG410019RO, YG410019RT (8/25/10) [4-pg. doc.]