Rent-Stabilized Tenants Can't Revert to Rent Control

Prior landlord sent rent-stabilized tenants lease nonrenewal notices because he needed their apartments for his own use. Tenants then filed DHCR complaints, claiming that they were rent controlled, not stabilized. The DRA ruled against tenants, and they appealed. While their PARs were pending, prior landlord sold the building and new landlord sent them lease renewal offers. Tenants then argued to the DHCR that they were presently subject to rent stabilization but that they were subject to a reversion to rent control. They claimed that in 1957, the DHCR’s predecessor agency ruled that the apartments were decontrolled after conversion from SRO to single-family units. Although issued before tenants moved in, the orders stated that the decontrol remained in effect only as long as the units were rented for single-family occupancy.

The DHCR ruled against tenants. For one thing, their original complaint was moot. And their apartments couldn’t revert to rent control. Tenants appealed, claiming that the DHCR’s decision was arbitrary and unreasonable. The court ruled against tenants. The rent control law didn’t allow a decontrolled unit to become recontrolled when prior landlord sent the nonrenewal notice based on owner occupancy. In addition, the decontrolled apartments became fully subject to rent stabilization in 1974. There was no provision in the rent stabilization law that apartments remained partially subject to rent control. And nothing in the 1957 orders barred the apartments from becoming subject to rent stabilization in 1974.

Sandow v. DHCR: NYLJ, 6/10/09, p. 27, col. 1 (Sup. Ct. NY; Figueroa, J)