Two-Family House Was Converted to Illegal Six-Unit SRO

In 2019, two tenants asked the DHCR in separate applications to rule on their apartments' regulatory status and to set the legal rent. The DRA ruled for tenants and found that their units were rent stabilized. Since landlord submitted no rent history and there was no rental history in the DHCR's database, the DRA set tenants' rents at $430 and $500 per month, respectively, which were the initial rents tenants had paid. The DRA also found that the building was rent stabilized because it contained at least six SRO units at one time.

Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that the premises was a two-family house and therefore not subject to rent stabilization. But in the transcript of a 2017 court case, landlord admitted that prior landlord had unlawfully broken the home into six units. And the addition of housing units to total at least six housing accommodations made the entire building subject to rent stabilization regardless of when the additions took place or whether they were legal.

Mashriqi: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket Nos. HS110018RO, HS110019RO (9/22/21)[8-pg. document]