Rent Reduction Orders Properly Issued After Fire

Tenants of one rent-controlled and eight rent-stabilized apartments complained to the DHCR of a reduction in services after DOB issued a Vacate Order following a building fire in April 2010. The DRA ruled for tenants and reduced their rents to $1 per month until their apartments were restored to habitability and rents could be restored. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord argued that it was improper for the DHCR to reduce rents, and thus preserve the landlord-tenant relationship, when restoring the building to habitability might be economically infeasible. But the issue before the DHCR was limited to whether tenants were entitled to rent reductions based on a decrease in services. Questions of economic infeasibility and whether landlord could terminate tenancies were beyond the scope of the DHCR cases and should be addressed by a court.

91 Eldredge Street: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket Nos. YF410032RO et al. (1/19/11) [3-pg. doc.]