Landlord-Tenant—Landlord and Tenants Agreed That Apartment Would be Decontrolled and that Their Agreements Should be Submitted to DHCR and They Would Request That DHCR Issue an Order Confirming that the Apartments Are Unregulated by Rent Control or Rent Stabilization—Even if Agreement Is Favorable to Tenants, It Is Not Enforceable Notwithstanding DHCR’s “Imprimatur”
The plaintiff landlord owns a New York City apartment building. In 1994, the prior owner and the subject tenants’ association (association) entered into an agreement (agreement) with respect to “the disputed rent regulation status of certain apartments.” The agreement contained the prior owner’s acknowledgement that the tenants were “rent controlled.” In 2006, the owner and the association entered into a revised agreement (new agreement). The new agreement provided that “the apartments of those tenants who signed the new agreement were no longer subject to rent regulation.” Such tenants were to receive “new 49-year leases, with an option to continue as month-to-month tenants for those who survived the 49-year term, with succession rights, as well as limits on annual increases in rents.
