Tenant Excused from Not Answering Deregulation Application

(Decision submitted by David Hershey-Webb of the Manhattan law firm of Himmselstein, McConnell, Gribben, Donoghue & Joseph, attorneys for the tenant.)

Landlord applied to the DHCR for high-rent/high-income deregulation of tenant's apartment. The DRA ruled for landlord based on tenant's failure to answer the DHCR's notice of landlord's application. Tenant appealed, claiming that she had answered the notice of landlord's application. However, by mistake, she mailed her answer to landlord instead of to the DHCR. Tenant claimed that she made this mistake because of medical, health, and other personal problems. She also said that her annual household income was below $175,000 for each of the two years in question. The DHCR ruled for tenant and reopened the case. Landlord appealed, claiming that the DHCR's decision was arbitrary and unreasonable. The court ruled against landlord. Landlord didn't deny that it received tenant's answer and didn't claim that tenant's income was above the deregulation threshold. Tenant showed good cause for her default, providing a number of personal and medical reasons for her mistake. The DHCR reasonably sent the case back to the DRA to determine whether the Department of Taxation and Finance could match tenant's income tax information to the information she supplied in her answer.

Fernbach LLC v. DHCR: Index No. 102330/07 (10/11/07) (Sup. Ct. NY; Diamond, J) [2-pg. doc.]