Tenants Subject to High-Rent Deregulation After MCI Increase

Landlord applied for high-rent/high-income deregulation of rent-stabilized tenants' apartment in 2010. Tenants, a married couple, had admitted in the Income Certification Form sent earlier that year that their total annual household income was more than $175,000 in both 2008 and 2009. The DRA ruled for landlord, ordering deregulation at the end of tenants' existing lease term. Tenants appealed and lost. Tenants claimed that their monthly rent exceeded $2,000 in 2010 only due to an MCI rent hike that they were in the process of challenging. But there was no proof of any current court proceeding pending against the MCI rent hike tenants referred to. The DRA had granted landlord an MCI rent hike in 2007 for a new boiler. The DHCR denied tenants' PAR of that decision in 2009. Tenants then filed an Article 78 court appeal, and the case was sent back to the DHCR in August 2009. On remand, the DHCR upheld the MCI rent hike on Oct. 15, 2010. This was shortly after tenants filed their PAR of the deregulation order. But tenants didn't file any Article 78 appeal of the agency's final Oct. 15, 2010, MCI increase order. So, there was no grounds for tenants' appeal.

Sacks: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. YI410056RT (1/3/13) [4-pg. doc.]