Tenants Claim Deregulation Notice Not Received

Landlord applied in 2006 for high-rent/high-income deregulation of tenants' rent-stabilized apartment. The DRA ruled for landlord based on tenant's failure to answer the agency's notice of the application. Tenants appealed, claiming that they never received the DRA's notice. The DHCR ruled against tenants, who then filed an Article 78 petition to challenge the DHCR's decision. The court sent the case back to the DHCR for reconsideration.
Tenants won. Tenants denied receiving any notice from the DRA, and nothing in the record showed that the notices were actually delivered directly to tenants or their apartment. Tenants claimed that mail was sometimes handled by doormen at the building who were landlord's employees and that there sometimes were problems with mail delivery as a result. So the DHCR couldn't adequately establish that tenants received the DRA's notice, and the case was opened to allow tenants to respond. Tenants had completed and returned the Income Certification Form to landlord in 2006, which also supported their claim that they simply didn't receive later notice of landlord's deregulation application.

Stock: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. XD410004RP (8/5/09) [4-pg. doc.]