Windows Needed Corrective Work

(Decision submitted by Martin J. Heistein of the Manhattan law firm of Belkin Burden Wenig & Goldman, LLP, attorneys for the landlord.) Facts: Landlord installed over 58,000 new windows in the 110-unit apartment complex known as Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village between 1991 and 1993. The total cost of the MCI was over $30 million. The DRA denied landlord's application for MCI rent increases. The DRA found that landlord's MCI was incomplete at the time the application was filed because a fracturing glass defect existed in 1.5 percent of the windows. This required landlord to undertake additional work. Specifically, landlord had to insert capillary tubes into all of the windows to relieve pressure and stress on the glass. Landlord appealed. DHCR: Landlord wins in part. Out of 147,000 glass panes, 2,200 fractured. This was a small percentage of the total number of panes. Landlord quickly and conscientiously made good-faith efforts to prevent further breaks by installing the capillary tubes at no extra cost to tenants. Given the huge size of the building-wide project, the DRA erred in denying the MCI rent hikes for all tenants. The DHCR approved rent increases for all tenants but delayed it for those tenants whose windows needed to be replaced.

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Dckt. No. IK 410210 RO (12/14/95) [10-page document]