No Rent Credit for Useful-Life Waiver

Landlord applied for MCI rent hikes based on pointing/masonry and a new roof installation. The DRA ruled for landlord. Tenants appealed and lost. Tenants claimed that previously completed pointing and related work for which landlord obtained a prior MCI increase hadn't outlived its useful life. They argued that they should get a credit for the two years of useful life remaining on the prior work under the DHCR's formula. The DHCR ruled against tenants. The Rent Stabilization Code calls for a reduction in the amount of a rent increase only when a waiver of useful life has been granted for a prior installation that hasn't exhausted at least 75 percent of its useful life. Here, the previous pointing was completed 13 years before the current pointing was begun. So more than 75 percent of the 15-year useful-life cycle of the prior pointing was exhausted. Landlord also properly requested the useful-life waiver at the time of its MCI application, and not beforehand, since there was evidence of an unsafe condition.

888 Eighth Avenue: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. UF410085RT (12/2/11) [4-pg. doc.]