Tenant's Apartment Is Part of Horizontal Multiple Dwelling

Tenant asked the DHCR for a ruling on her rent regulatory status. Tenant claimed that her two-family building and the adjoining two-family buildings together were a horizontal multiple dwelling and therefore subject to rent stabilization. The DRA ruled for tenant. Landlord appealed and lost. The DHCR found that a multiple garden-type dwelling complex containing common building systems on the rent stabilization base date is rent stabilized whether or not the Certificate of Occupancy is issued for portions of the complex as two-family dwellings. Landlord appealed, arguing that the DHCR presumed that the complex was garden-type dwellings without sufficient facts. The case was sent back to DHCR for further investigation.

The DHCR again ruled against landlord. The DHCR was unable to gain access for inspection of building systems. But in 1985 the DHCR had ruled that tenant's apartment was rent stabilized. Also, in 1992, a court ruled in connection with the complex that garden apartments converted to individual houses were still subject to rent stabilization. And ACRIS records showed that in 1986 there was common ownership of tenant's building and a few other buildings sharing the same city block. The DHCR also sent landlord copies of these records, but landlord didn't respond. 

25-06 87th Street: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. AP120006RP (9/20/13) [4-pg. doc.]