Two Units Treated as One for Luxury Decontrol Purposes

Landlord applied for high-rent/high-income deregulation of tenants' combined apartments. Tenants lived in two adjoining apartments that were connected through an inner doorway. Together, the rent for the apartments was over $2,000 per month, and landlord claimed they should be treated as one unit. The DRA ruled against landlord based on an inspection in 1998 that showed that the doorway between the apartments was sealed. Landlord appealed and won. At the time that landlord applied for luxury decontrol in 1997, the doorway between the apartments was open. Tenants sealed it shortly afterwards when their son returned from college to give him privacy in one of the apartments. So the apartments were combined at the time that mattered for determining whether to treat the apartments as one unit.

River York Stratford LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Dckt. No. MI410018RO (3/1/00) [3-pg. doc.]