Legal Rent Less Than $2,000 When Landlord Sought Deregulation

Landlord applied for high-rent/high-income deregulation of tenants' apartment in 2007. Landlord claimed that tenants' legal rent was $2,000 or more and requested verification of tenants' household income for 2005 and 2006. Tenants claimed that their legal rent was only $1,998 during the lease term that ended on July 31, 2007. They had raised this issue in a lease renewal complaint that the DHCR decided in their favor. The DRA ruled for tenants and dismissed landlord's deregulation application. Landlord appealed and lost. When landlord sent the Income Certification Form to tenants in February 2007, tenants' legal rent was less than $2,000. So there was no basis for landlord's deregulation application, and it was properly dismissed.

63rd Street Owner, LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. WB410010RO (10/6/08) [3-pg. doc.]