Rents Set in Hotel Reclassified as Apartment House

Facts: The DHCR reclassified a residential hotel as an apartment house and set rents based on tenants' complaints that landlord no longer provided hotel services. Landlord appealed. The trial court revoked those parts of the DHCR's order that set rents for all rent-stabilized tenants---whether or not they'd complained---based on their June 30, 1982, rent and restored hotel rather than apartment guideline increases for lease renewals from June 30, 1982, to March 12, 1985. Landlord appealed, still contesting the calculation methods. Court: The trial court shouldn't have revoked the DHCR's order. After reclassifying the hotel as an apartment building, it was necessary to restore the rents for all tenants to what they'd have been, had hotel services been provided. The DHCR had to restore hotel rent guidelines increases for all tenants---both complaining and noncomplaining---before valuing hotel services not provided and limiting any retroactive rent reduction to complaining tenants only. Otherwise the noncomplaining tenants would've received rent rollbacks to which they weren't entitled.

Matter of 245 Central Park Associates: NYLJ, p. 26, col. 5 (5/20/93) (App. Div. 1 Dept.; Sullivan, JP, Wallach, Kupferman, Rubin, JJ)