The First Department, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice Gische, affirmed the dismissal of an Article 78 petition seeking a ruling on the status of petitioners’ apartment and the legality of the rent:
The disputes before us arise from the Fair Market Rent Appeal (FMRA) petitioners filed with respondent New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), implicating both the regulatory status of their apartment and the legality of the rent they were charged from the time they first took occupancy in 2010.
The DHCR decision being challenged in this article 78 proceeding denied the FMRA as untimely because it was filed more than four years after the apartment was no longer subject to the rent control laws following the death of the previous tenant in 2004. DHCR rejected petitioners’ contention that the applicable statute of limitations should be disregarded because the owner had engaged in fraud. DHCR also rejected petitioners’ claim that the owner’s late notices and/or registrations had extended the time period within which petitioners could file an FMRA challenging the owner’s efforts to set an initial rent following the apartment’s removal from rent control. Finally, on the merits, DHCR concluded that petitioners were not entitled to either a rent-regulated apartment or regulated rent because in 2010, when they first took occupancy, the apartment was no longer receiving any J-51 tax benefits and had become vacant at a time when the legal vacancy rent clearly exceeded $2,000 per month, an amount sufficient to make it high-rent/vacancy, “luxury” decontrolled … . Matter of Park v New York State Div. of Hous. & Community Renewal, 1st Dept 4-6-17
LANDLORD-TENANT (FAIR MARKET RENT APPEAL PROPERLY DISMISSED)/MUNICIPAL LAW (NYC, FAIR MARKET RENT APPEAL PROPERLY DISMISSED)/FAIR MARKET RENTAL APPEAL (NYC, LANDLORD-TENANT, FAIR MARKET RENT APPEAL PROPERLY DISMISSED)