Two Buildings Were Horizontal Multiple Dwelling Subject to Rent Stabilization

The DHCR initiated an Administrative Determination (AD) proceeding to determine whether two buildings together formed a horizontal multiple dwelling (HMD) subject to rent stabilization. Landlord claimed that the buildings weren't rent stabilized due to a substantial rehabilitation following a fire in 1993 and subsequent fire in 1997, which caused the buildings to become vacant. Landlord also said that the structures were two distinct buildings with separate boilers in each apartment. The DRA ruled against landlord and found that the buildings were an HMD.

Landlord appealed and lost. By long-standing case law, the DHCR can find buildings to be subject to rent regulation when there is sufficient indicia of common facilities, common ownership, management, and operation to warrant treating the housing as an integrated complex, even if not a garden-type maisonette complex. Here, the two buildings were registered with the DHCR in 1984 under one address with nine apartments and a single bell-buzzer system. In 2001, landlord filed an application claiming that the buildings were exempt from rent regulation based on substantial rehab, which was denied. Landlord filed a second application, which was closed without prejudice in 2007 because landlord failed to submit a final C of O for the project. DOB records showed that landlord had filed an A2 alteration application, which is filed for standard interior demolition and/or renovation work that didn't affect the use, egress, or occupancy of the space and which pertained to mechanical, plumbing or other construction. 

DOB and DOF records also showed that the two buildings were continuously sold as one parcel and that the buildings shared the same tax lot and block, the same MDR number and the same Building Identification Number. DOF records showed that the buildings together were taxed as a walk-up building with at least six apartments. And, while it appeared that each building had several separate systems and gas-fired boilers for each apartment, DHCR inspection in 2021 revealed that all of the service panels and meters were located in the basement of one of the two buildings, that there was a passageway between the two basements, and all equipment was contained in a storage room in the rear yard of the deli located on the ground floor. 

Red Hook Enterprises Inc.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. HU220006RO (9/29/21)[4-pg. document]