No MCI Increase for Two Apartments with Leaks Following Pointing Work

Landlord applied for MCI rent hikes based on pointing, related work, and engineering services. The DRA ruled for landlord. Tenants appealed and won, in part. Among other things, tenants claimed that the MCI work was completed more than two years before landlord's application was filed in 2010, that the work consisted of non-MCI spot-pointing repairs, that there were no invoices for the work, that the work was of poor quality, that the facade had unsafe conditions, and that there were ECB violations. 

The DHCR found that the MCI application was timely filed and that the claim that work was a non-MCI spot pointing was without merit. The cited DOB and ECB violations weren't immediately hazardous violations and didn't prevent MCI rent increases. The fact that two of the 200 apartments had water leaks wasn't sufficient to deny the MCI increases generally. However, since those two apartments continued to have water leaks related to the facade pointing after the work was completed, those two units were permanently exempted from the MCI rent increase for pointing and related work. And the DRA already had disallowed a portion of the engineering services that was unrelated to the building. 

PWV Tenants' Association/Wagener: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket Nos. DU410024RT, DU410018RT (6/8/23)[4-pg. document]