Legal Rent Didn’t Exceed $2,000 When New Tenant Moved In

Tenant complained of rent overcharge. Landlord claimed that tenant wasn’t rent stabilized, based on individual apartment improvements (IAIs) performed before tenant moved in that resulted in a legal regulated rent of $2,100. The DRO ruled for tenant, found a small overcharge of $116, and ordered landlord to register the rent.

Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord argued that the DRO improperly disallowed some of the IAIs. But the DRO correctly disallowed expenses related to painting, replacement of rotten floor, and sanding/polyurethane because they were ordinary maintenance and repair costs rather than IAIs. Landlord claimed that the painting was related to installation of new walls, but landlord’s contractor invoice didn’t indicate which new walls were installed or that painting costs were directly related to finishing the new walls. Landlord also didn’t show that the sanding/polyurethane costs were related to new flooring as opposed to refinishing existing floors. After allowing some of the IAI costs, the new legal regulated rent didn’t exceed $2,000 per month and the apartment was rent stabilized. Until then, tenant’s rent was frozen since the apartment hadn’t been registered since 2010.

18 St. Marks Place Trident LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. DW410021RO (3/14/16) [4-pg. doc.]