Doctor/Dentist Offices Needn't Be Registered as Rent-Stabilized Units

The DHCR's Rent Administrator issued a Notice of Proposed Action to landlord in 2020, noting that DOF records indicated that landlord's building received J-51 tax benefits for the period between July 1, 2017, and June 30, 2018. Therefore, multiple apartments listed as exempt from rent stabilization with the DHCR were in fact rent stabilized. The DRA issued an order directing landlord to amend the building's 2018 rent registration summary to reflect 133 rent-stabilized units, and to register two particular "exempt" apartments as rent stabilized.

Landlord appealed and won. Landlord pointed out that the two exempt units weren't exempt due to high-rent vacancy but because they were "commercial in nature" as a doctor's office and a dentist office located in the basement. The building's Certificate of Occupancy listed these two basement units as the designated offices. The DHCR confirmed that landlord was correct and that the two apartments in question need not be registered as rent stabilized. Landlord also had complied with a prior 2016 order directing amendment of registrations for apartments that didn't include the two in question here.

Townhouse Management: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. JO410048RO (4/1/22)[3-pg. document]