Regina Decision Not Applicable to High-Rent/High-Income Deregulation

Landlord applied in 2014 for high-rent/high-income deregulation of tenant's rent-stabilized apartment. The DRA ruled for landlord and issued a deregulation order in April 2018 based on income verification information from the DTF stating that tenant's total annual household income was over $200,000 in both 2012 and 2013. The deregulation order stated that the apartment was deregulated "effective upon the expiration of the existing lease."

In September 2019, the DRA followed up by issuing an Explanatory Order (EA), which stated that if the renewal lease in effect in April 2018 when the deregulation order was issued didn't expire until after June 14, 2019, when HSTPA was enacted, then the apartment remained regulated because luxury deregulation was abolished prospectively by HSTPA.

Landlord appealed the EA and lost. Landlord supplemented its PAR to argue that the April 2020 decision by New York's highest court in Regina Metropolitan Co. v. DHCR invalidated the retroactive portions of HSTPA. But HSTPA stated that the law was to "take effect immediately" and that "if an apartment remains rent regulated on or after June 14, 2019, then that apartment is no longer subject to the statutory provisions of high-rent/high-income deregulation." The EA itself wasn't based on any new findings or determinations by the DRA. And the deregulation order wasn't a final order given the expiration of tenant's lease after June 14, 2019. And the Regina decision didn't apply to high-rent/high-income deregulation. It only disallowed retroactive application of certain rent overcharge provisions contained in Part F of HSTPA. 

300 East 57th Street LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. HV410281RO (9/3/20) [7-pg. doc.]