Rent Hike Granted for Replacement of Hallway Carpeting

Landlord applied for MCI rent hikes based on the installation of carpeting and hallway renovations. The DRA ruled against landlord, finding that the carpet installation wasn't performed building-wide and that the hallway renovations didn't qualify as MCIs. Landlord appealed and won, in part. Landlord replaced all of the previously existing hallway carpeting on the upper floors of the building. The fact that the lobby had a terrazzo floor and wasn't carpeted shouldn't have disqualified the work for an MCI increase. So landlord was granted an MCI increase for the carpeting. But the hallway renovations constituted only maintenance and repairs. While done at the same time as the carpeting, the work wasn't directly related to the carpeting, or made necessary by the carpeting. 

65 Oriental Boulevard: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. AN230045RO (5/21/13) [4-pg. doc.]