Tenants Didn't Provide Income Verification Information

(Decision submitted by Terry Hazen of the Manhattan law firm of Mitofsky Shapiro Neville & Hazen, LLP, attorneys for the landlord.) Landlord filed a high-rent/high-income deregulation application for tenants' apartment in 2000. Tenants answered that they hadn't filed their 1998 and 1999 tax returns. The DRA asked for proof of tenants' tax filing extension applications. Tenants claimed that they weren't yet available. In May 2001, the Department of Taxation and Finance was unable to verify tenants' household income for 1998 and 1999. In June 2001, the DRA again asked tenants whether they had filed their returns, when they expected to do so if they hadn't, and to submit copies of the first page of their returns if they had been filed. The DRA again requested this information from tenants in July 2001 and in April 2002. Tenants never responded to any of these requests for income verification information. The DRA ruled for landlord based on tenants' default. Tenants appealed. The DHCR denied tenants' PAR, and tenants started a court case challenging the DHCR's ruling. They claimed that the DHCR's decision was unreasonable because they answered the application. The court ruled against tenants. Tenants' response to landlord's application was evasive and incomplete. They didn't provide the information required to verify their income. The DHCR reasonably found tenants to be in default.

Zitron v. DHCR: Index No. 124216/02 (11/7/03) [10-pg. doc.]