Landlord Waited Too Long to Claim Rent-Stabilized Apartment Was Rent Controlled

Westchester County landlord asked the DHCR to determine that tenant's apartment was rent controlled rather than rent stabilized. The DRA ruled against landlord, who appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that the apartment was rented to tenant for at least 10 years before the ETPA became law and therefore was rent controlled. But landlord bought the building in 1974, always treated tenant as rent stabilized under the ETPA, issued leases governed by the Westchester Rent Guidelines Board, registered the apartment as rent stabilized since 1984, and filed several MCI rent increase applications that listed the apartment as rent stabilized. Landlord therefore waited too long (40 years) to claim that the apartment was rent controlled. The DHCR relied on an appeals court case that ruled that a tenant who waited more than 14 years to claim she was rent controlled rather than rent stabilized had waited too long.

Park Plaza Larchmont LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. GR920003RO (10/2/19) [2-pg. doc.]