Tenant's Household Income Below Deregulation Threshold

Landlord applied for high-rent/high-income deregulation of tenant's rent-stabilized apartment in 2010. The DRA dismissed the application after DTF was unable to match its tax records to any records for tenant's daughter for 2008 and otherwise found that tenant's total annual household income was below the deregulation threshold for 2008 and 2009. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that tenant's daughter lived in the apartment at all times relevant to the proceeding and that her income must be included in the DHCR's consideration of deregulation. Tenant claimed that her daughter lived in Florida during 2008 and that, in any event, she lived with tenant only temporarily, not as her primary residence. The DHCR noted that, in order to have the daughter's income considered, what mattered was where she lived in March 2010 when the Income Certification Form (ICF) was served. Whether the daughter lived in the apartment during 2008 and 2009 wasn't relevant to determining whether her income should be included in the household income for purposes of luxury deregulation. And the DHCR was required to rely on DTF's income findings.

220 East 72nd Street LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. BM410029RO (6/9/14) [4-pg. doc.]