No MCI Rent Hike for Security Cameras

Landlord applied for MCI rent hikes based on the installation of a closed-circuit television security system. The DRA ruled against landlord because the system wasn’t monitored on a 24-hour basis. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that the system operated 24 hours a day and that neither the Rent Stabilization Code nor DHCR policy required security cameras to be monitored at all times. But it is the DHCR’s policy that, for a TV security system to qualify as an MCI, all entrances to the building must be monitored on a 24-hour basis, or there must be visual capacity in each apartment in connection with a functioning intercom system. A television system not associated with an intercom, but that merely records activities without continuous monitoring, isn’t an MCI.

201 West 11th Street: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. TC430123RO (6/4/09) [3-pg. doc.]