In the meantime, DHCR faces the Gordian task of sorting out which landlords essentially illegally deregulated apartments, not to mention a potential onslaught of overcharge complaints by tenants. At first, DHCR was allegedly allowing evictions of rent-regulated tenants to proceed, but put a halt to the practice after several local politicians put the agency on notice. (See officials' letter here and DHCR's response here.) DHCR spokesman Jim Plastiras says that the agency is now working with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development to compile a list of units at stake in the decision.
“Whether or not it’s an administrative burden, it should happen,” says Coleman of Tenants & Neighbors. “It was improper for DHCR to let these units leave the rent regulation system in the first place.”
The RSA’s Posilkin insists that: “The appellate division did not give appropriate deference to the interpretation by the state housing agency. And they did not give enough deference to 15 years of practice.”
Over at Legal Aid, attorney Davidson suggests a radical response to this criticism: that DHCR could actually join the case on behalf of the tenants. The agency has done this in the past, most recently in the case of Rosario v. Diagonal Realty, in which the Court of Appeals upheld the right of tenants who receive a Section 8 voucher to receive a new lease on the same terms as their previous lease.
But DHCR’s Plastiras holds out little hope that the agency will do so: “The legal decision is not final. So we are essentially waiting for the final resolution for this case and for the courts to make their determination and provide us with direction about how we should handle these cases.” The tenants at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village are waiting, too.
