No Increase for Rewiring that Wasn't Building-Wide

Landlord applied for MCI rent hikes based on rewiring. The DRA ruled against landlord because the work wasn't done building-wide and landlord didn't comply with the requirements of a Prior Opinion it had gotten from the DHCR in 2003. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord requested a prior opinion from the DHCR on whether its proposed rewiring project qualified as an MCI. Landlord had already done work in deregulated apartments. In its Prior Opinion, the DHCR listed a number of conditions needed for the work to qualify. Landlord didn't meet those conditions. Prior work that landlord did on 48 apartments wasn't part of a comprehensive plan. In addition, documentation of the accounting of costs and actual work performed by apartment as required by the Prior Opinion wasn't sufficient for this two-year project. There was no breakdown to show work performed to individual apartments. Duplex kitchen outlets weren't installed in the initial 48 apartments. Yet the costs of the apartment rewiring for the 48 deregulated apartments and the regulated apartments were claimed together under the contract. So the work that actually was done wasn't sufficiently documented to prove that a building-wide MCI was performed.

2211 Broadway: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. VK430026RO (6/15/09) [7-pg. doc.]