MCI Application Filed Too Late

Landlord of Yonkers building applied for MCI rent hikes based on a number of improvements. The DRA ruled against landlord because landlord filed its application more than two years after the work was completed. Landlord appealed. The work was done between 2000 and 2003. Landlord filed its MCI application in April 2006. Landlord claimed that, before 2005, the Tenant Protection Regulations had no two-year limit for filing MCI applications. Landlord's building was in Westchester County. Landlord argued that, at the time of its application, the two-year limit applied only in New York City under the Rent Stabilization Code.
The DHCR ruled against landlord. Before 2005, it was the DHCR's practice to apply the two-year rule to MCI applications filed outside New York City. The DHCR generally applies the Rent Stabilization Law and ETPA in a uniform manner, unless there are regulations to the contrary. Tenant Protection Regulations Section 2502.6 gives the DHCR equity power to apply the laws and regulations in a consistent manner. The two-year time limit helped ensure that documents could be verified and gave tenants a fair chance to respond to landlord's application. Tenant Protection Regulation Section 2502.4(a)(3)(vi) now included a two-year limit for filing MCI applications. And, in 2007, a court upheld the DHCR's practice of applying the two-year deadline in Westchester before the Tenant Protection Regulations were amended.

265 North Broadway, LLC: DHC Adm. Rev. Docket No. VJ910079RO (6/4/08) [4-pg. doc.]