TENANT’S HUSBAND HAD MOVED TO A NURSING HOME, DIVISION OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY RENEWAL PROPERLY ONLY COUNTED TENANT’S PORTION OF THE COUPLE’S INCOME TO FIND HER ELIGIBLE FOR RENT CONTROL (CT APP).
The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Feinman, over an extensive dissenting opinion, determined the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) properly counted only the resident’s income, and not her husband’s income, for purposes of her eligibility for rent control. Her husband had moved to a nursing home:
Petitioner’s main contention is that because, under federal tax law, a joint tax return results in joint tax liability attributable to both filers … , under the RCL [rent control law], tenant’s federal AGI [adjusted gross income] cannot be apportioned and therefore her total annual income exceeds the income threshold. Petitioner offers no sound explanation why federal income tax liability should be outcome determinative of how DHCR interprets and applies the RCL. …
To be sure, RCL … characterizes annual income as the federal AGI. The statute also provides that total annual income is calculated as the “sum” of the annual incomes of all those “who occupy the housing accommodation as their primary residence” … . To read the statute as petitioner and the dissent suggest would mean that total annual income may include those persons who do not occupy the housing accommodation as their primary residence. “Such a construction, resulting in the nullification of one part of the [statute] by another,’ is impermissible, and violates the rule that all parts of a statute are to be harmonized with each other” … . Matter of Brookford, LLC v New York State Div. of Hous. & Community Renewal, 2018 NY Slip Op 04381, CtApp 6-14-18
LANDLORD-TENANT (TENANT’S HUSBAND HAD MOVED TO A NURSING HOME, DIVISION OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY RENEWAL PROPERLY ONLY COUNTED TENANT’S PORTION OF THE COUPLE’S INCOME TO FIND HER ELIGIBLE FOR RENT CONTROL (CT APP))/ADMINISTRATIVE LAW (RENT CONTROL, TENANT’S HUSBAND HAD MOVED TO A NURSING HOME, DIVISION OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY RENEWAL PROPERLY ONLY COUNTED TENANT’S PORTION OF THE COUPLE’S INCOME TO FIND HER ELIGIBLE FOR RENT CONTROL (CT APP))/RENT CONTROL (TENANT’S HUSBAND HAD MOVED TO A NURSING HOME, DIVISION OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY RENEWAL PROPERLY ONLY COUNTED TENANT’S PORTION OF THE COUPLE’S INCOME TO FIND HER ELIGIBLE FOR RENT CONTROL (CT APP))/DIVISION OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY RENEWAL (TENANT’S HUSBAND HAD MOVED TO A NURSING HOME, DIVISION OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY RENEWAL PROPERLY ONLY COUNTED TENANT’S PORTION OF THE COUPLE’S INCOME TO FIND HER ELIGIBLE FOR RENT CONTROL (CT APP))