No Proof Landlord Combined Units to Create New, Unregulated Unit

Tenant filed an application with the DHCR in 2015 for an administrative determination (AD) that his apartment was subject to rent stabilization. Tenant claimed that he moved into apartment 12 in 1987 without a lease, at a rent of $700 per month. A prior landlord offered tenant a written lease for Apt. 12 on Oct. 1, 1990, at a monthly rent of $900. A lease rider attached to that lease stated that tenant was the first rent-stabilized tenant of the unit after rent control. In 2010, current landlord attempted to buy out tenant and in 2015 brought two separate holdover proceedings tenant, one for Apt. 12 and another for Apt. 14. At that time, tenant claimed that he didn't live in Apt. 14 and didn't know why Apts. 12 and 14 were registered together with the DHCR. 

Landlord answered notice of tenant's application in 2016 and, by then, had discontinued at least one of the eviction cases. Landlord claimed that apts. 12 and 14 had been combined and that the newly created apartment was deregulated because its market rent was more than $2,000 per month. The DRA ruled for tenant, found that the apartment remained rent stabilized, and ordered landlord to give tenant a rent-stabilized renewal lease at $900 per month. 

Landlord appealed and lost. The DRA was entitled to look back beyond the October 2011 base date to determine the apartment's rent regulatory status. And landlord failed to prove that two apartments had been combined to create a new unit. Tenant's 1990 lease for Apt. 12 described the unit as having six rooms. Landlord also hadn't filed annual registrations for either an apartment 12 or an apartment 14. But landlord had applied for MCI rent increase for Apt. 12 in 2018. 

109 Realty LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. HU410016RO (6/29/22)[6-pg. document]