Houses in Complex Aren't Multiple Dwellings

Landlord sued to evict tenant from rent-stabilized house based on tenant's nonprimary residence. Tenant claimed that landlord's petition was defective because it didn't state that landlord claimed the house was a multiple dwelling. The house was a unique type of housing in that the land was owned by landlord, and eight individual houses on the land were owned by someone else. Each individual house was occupied by an independent family. The houses were subject to rent stabilization under an unusual provision of the rent stabilization law. Tenant claimed that because rent stabilization applies only to residential buildings with six or more units and because the house was rent-stabilized, the house was part of a horizontal multiple dwelling and should have been registered with HPD as such. The court ruled against tenant on this issue. The fact that the house was rent-stabilized didn't make it a multiple dwelling. The Multiple Dwelling Law defines a multiple dwelling as a building with three or more units or as a complex of smaller buildings with common facilities. Only one family lived in each of the eight houses in landlord's complex. And the houses didn't share common utilities.

200-218 Soundview Realty Corp. v. Sherlock: NYLJ, p. 23, col. 1 (9/11/96) (Civ. Ct. Bronx; Heymann, J)