Some Services Not Provided When Building Transferred from Mitchell-Lama to Stabilization

Rent-stabilized tenants complained of a reduction in building-wide services. The DRA ruled for tenants and reduced their rents. Landlord appealed and won, in part. Among other things, the DRA found that landlord had discontinued storage space and the provision of a security guard. The building had been a Mitchell-Lama project that later became rent stabilized in March 2006. The DRA found that the storage space and security guard were ancillary services that were provided when the building was under Mitchell-Lama and that they must be continued. But landlord demonstrated, through unrebutted building employee sworn statements, that these services weren't provided at the time that the initial rent-stabilized rents for the building were established under the Private Housing Finance Law. Therefore, they weren't base date services under rent stabilization. So storage space and security guard services were removed from the list of building-wide services that needed to be restored in order to restore rents.

Highbridge House Ogden, LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. ER610026RO (5/30/17) [7-pg. doc.]