Application Filed Too Late

Landlord applied for MCI rent hikes. The DHCR denied landlord's application, finding that it was filed more than two years after the work was completed. Landlord appealed, claiming that it originally filed its application in March 1989 and that it refiled the application in 1990 because it had heard nothing from the DHCR. Landlord showed a 1990 notice it got from the DHCR stating that the application was incomplete. Landlord claimed it made additional submissions in 1990 and refiled its application in 1993. The DHCR found that the application was filed in 1993 and that the contractor's statement of completion was signed in May 1990. Landlord appealed and lost for a number of reasons. Landlord's 1989 and 1990 postal receipts showed only that something was filed with the DHCR. But the receipts didn't show that it was landlord's MCI application that was filed. The application landlord submitted in 1993 was signed in 1993. The notice from DHCR which landlord claimed it had received in 1990 was on a form that wasn't used until 1992. And landlord submitted no statements from anyone who supposedly filed the 1989 application.

Dayton Operating Co. v. DHCR: NYLJ, p. 30, col. 5 (10/4/95) (Sup. Ct. Queens; Milano, J)