Landlord & Tenant Law

In landlord’s article 78 proceeding challenging DHCR’s interpretation of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA), landlord appealed from Supreme Court’s affirmance of Supreme Court’s dismissal of the proceeding. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that DHCR’s interpretation of the statute with regard to luxury deregulation had a rational basis.
In 2019, the state legislature enacted the HSTPA, which ended luxury deregulation for rent-stabilized apartments. A cleanup bill provided that the act would take effect immediately, but that any unit that was lawfully deregulated prior to June 14, 2019 would remain deregulated. Landlord in this case owned apartment buildings that obtained luxury deregulation orders before the HSPA for tenants with leases that expired after the statute took effect. DHCR concluded that the apartments did not become deregulated because the leases did not expire until after the HSTPA became effective. Landlord challenged the interpretation, but lost at Supreme Court and the Appellate Division.