Two Buildings Were Horizontal Multiple Dwelling Subject to Rent Stabilization

Landlord applied to the DHCR in 2020 for a ruling that its two small buildings, each containing three apartments, were separate and not subject to rent regulation. In response, tenants claimed that the two buildings together formed a horizontal multiple dwelling (HMD) containing six or more apartments and therefore were subject to rent stabilization. The DRA ruled for landlord and found that the buildings were unregulated.

Tenants appealed and won. After reviewing DHCR records and records of other agencies, the DHCR found that: the two buildings had a long history of being joined and operated as a common unit; had a long history of common ownership, management, and financing since as early as Dec. 20, 1951; shared a single tax lot; and shared a number of commonalities such as a fire escape at the back of the buildings, a common facade and parapet with no separation, a basement with a party wall, a common garbage collection area, and -- prior to 2018 -- a boiler. Landlord had shown that there were separate mailboxes, intercoms, water mains, sewer pipes, and entranceways. But the other proof of common systems, ownership, and management outweighed the separate items.

In addition, in a prior order issued on June 15, 1990, the DHCR granted a building tenant's rent overcharge complaint. DHCR apartment registrations filed around that time also listed as a tenant the name of an individual who was an officer of the current owner entity. Other agency records also showed that there was one boiler for the two buildings between 1998 and 2018, when landlord installed a new gas boiler in the cellar of one building without a work permit or plans. And in 2017, landlord applied for a DOB permit to subdivide the single tax lot into two lots.

Given all the evidence, the two buildings were a HMD before Jan. 1, 1974, when the buildings became subject to rent stabilization.

Various Tenants of 266 Throop Avenue and 266 A Throop Avenue: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. KO210050RT (10/1/24)[8-pg. document]