Landlord Must Provide Secondary Manual Elevator

Tenants complained of a reduction in building-wide services based on the removal of manual elevator service. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord pointed out the building contained a separate passenger elevator. Landlord claimed that the service elevator was half the size of the passenger elevator, that it couldn't be operated without use of a key and building staff as needed, that it wasn't used to transport furniture, for regular garbage removal, or for moving large items, and it didn't stop on the second floor. The manual service elevator was limited to infrequent use when the passenger elevator was briefly shut down. Landlord believed it unreasonable to pay to renovate the manual elevator. The DHCR found that, unless and until landlord filed an application with the DHCR to modify required services and received approval, the manual elevator was a required service not being provided. Therefore, the rent reduction was appropriate. 

C72 LLC Management Corp.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. GM410029RO (12/31/18) [2-pg. doc.]