Landlord Didn't Indicate Rent-Regulated Apartments on PW1 Application

DOB issued a violation notice to landlord for making material false statements in a Plan/Work Application (PW1) filed with DOB. The PW1 indicated that the building contained: (a) no occupied housing units; and (b) no occupied units subject to rent control or rent stabilization during proposed alteration. The notice states that, based on DOB records, the building contained rent-regulated apartments. At a hearing, DOB stated that DHCR records showed that rent-stabilized apartments were registered in 2018. Landlord argued that DOB failed to present prima facie proof of the violation claim. But landlord didn't rebut the violation notice. The ALJ fined landlord $5,000.

Landlord appealed and lost. The small number of rent-regulated units added to existing buildings during the relevant period and the high rate of occupancy of such units give rise to a rebuttable presumption that occupied rent-stabilized units existing on the 2018 violation date weren't added after filing the PW1 in 2015 or the DOB sign-off in 2016. And landlord never attempted to amend the PW1.

Schreiber: ECB App. No. 1801961 (3/7/19) [3-pg. doc.]