Landlord Showed No Proof It Had Filed an Exemption Application with DHCR

Tenant complained to the DHCR of rent overcharge and improper deregulation of the apartment. The DRA ruled for tenant, found that the unit was rent- stabilized, and directed landlord to file annual rent registrations from 2015 forward while freezing tenant's rent at $1,599 per month from April 1, 2015, until registration was completed. The DRA also directed landlord to offer tenant a rent-stabilized renewal lease.

Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that it bought the building in 1998, that prior to 1986, the building contained six rent-stabilized apartments and that the prior owner substantially rehabilitated the building, resulting in a new Certificate of Occupancy from DOB in 1998. The building now contained five apartments. Landlord also claimed that it applied in 2018 for a DHCR ruling that the building was exempt from rent stabilization. But the DHCR had no record of any such application. Instead, in a separate 2017 "AD" order, the DRA had ruled that the apartment was rent stabilized. If landlord wanted to claim that the building had been substantially rehabilitated, it must file an application with the DHCR for a ruling on that question. And while landlord's alternative claim was that the building was exempt because it had been reduced from six to five apartments, that didn't remove the building from rent stabilization.

Canovic: DHCR Admin. Rev. Dcket. No. KV210003RO (2/3/23)[5-pg. document]