Outstanding "C" Violation Barred MCI Rent Hike for One Apartment Only

(Decision submitted by David Hershey-Webb of the Manhattan law firm of Himmelstein, McConnell, Gribben, Donoghue & Joseph, LLP, attorneys for the tenants.)

The DRA granted landlord's MCI rent increase application based on the installation of a new roof and elevator upgrading. Tenants appealed and won, in part. The DHCR revoked the roof increase because not all portions of the roof were replaced. But tenants also claimed that the MCI increase should be disallowed due to an outstanding hazardous "C" violation placed on the building by HPD. The DHCR ruled for tenants in part. Under Rent Stabilization Code provisions in effect at the time the application was pending before the DRA, when there is proof that all outstanding non-lead-paint C violations would be removed from HPD's database within a reasonable time pending HPD inspection, there was no longer a bar to granting an MCI rent increase. But since the C violation was still showing up in the HPD database as of the filing of tenant's PAR, the one apartment affected was exempted from the MCI rent increase.

Embassy House EAT LLC/Embassy House Rent Stabilized Tenants Association: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket Nos. AQ410034RO, AQ410044RT (6/14/18) [3-pg. doc.]