Tenant Claims Income Will Decrease

(Decision submitted by Jeffrey Turkel of the Manhattan law firm of Rosenberg & Estis, P.C., attorneys for the landlord.) Landlord applied for destabilization of tenant's apartment. The DRA ruled for landlord, since tenant's monthly rent was greater than $2,000 and tenant admitted that his annual income during each of the prior two years was greater than $250,000. Tenant appealed, claiming that his income had been unusually high during the past two years due to a large sale of stocks. He also claimed that a disability would cause a drastic reduction in future income. The DHCR ruled against tenant. It's common for a household's taxable income to vary over a period of time, and for future earnings to be reduced based on disability. The rent stabilization law provisions on high-rent/high-income deregulation don't provide for any exceptions based on income changes. Arguably, the legislature already provided for income variations by requiring the DHCR to examine the household's income for a two-year period rather than a one-year period.

Woolley: DHCR Admin. Rev. Dckt. No. KE410086RT (8/15/96)