Lower Preferential Rent Doesn’t Prevent High-Rent Deregulation

Landlord applied for high-rent/high-income deregulation of tenant’s apartment in 2015, claiming that tenant’s rent was $2,500 or more per month and seeking verification as to whether tenant’s annual income was more than $200,000 in 2013 and 2014. The DRA ruled for landlord, based on tenant’s admission that her annual household income was more than $200,000 in each of the two years in question. Tenant appealed and lost. Tenant now claimed that she paid a preferential rent less than $2,500 and that therefore her rent was under than the deregulation threshold. But Rent Stabilization Code Section 2520.11(s) provides that the relevant rent for determining whether tenant has reached the high-rent/high-income deregulation threshold is the legal regulated rent. So it didn’t matter if tenant paid a lower preferential rent. [Download PDF of decision here.]

Dickens: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. ET4100092RT (3/3/17) [4-pg. doc.]