No Rent Hike for Painting Rent-Controlled Unit Landlord Previously Painted

Landlord applied to the DHCR for a rent increase based on a first-time painting of tenant's rent-controlled apartment. The DRA ruled against landlord, finding that the DHCR's rent registration cards showed that painting was a base date service for the apartment, and that two rent orders for painting service had previously been issued.

Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that the prior orders concerned a different tenant in a different rent control era, and that tenant moved into the apartment in 1980 and had always painted the apartment herself. But the DRA correctly denied landlord's application because this wasn't a first-time painting by landlord. Painting had been included in the original rent and in 1963 the Office of Rent Control ordered a rent decrease because the apartment had peeling paint and plaster. Rent was restored when landlord corrected that condition. And painting of a rent-controlled apartment attaches to the apartment, regardless of who the tenant is or when she moved in.

DJW Mgmt., LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. IM220026RO (7/3/20) [2-pg. doc.]