Court Opinion

ID: 9772645
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:24:35.355082+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:46.449618
License: Public Domain

Smith, J. (concurring).
I join the Court’s unanimous opinion, but with some misgivings.
There are a number of cases (including Matter of Little [DHCR Admin Review Docket No. NC430029RP et al. (Aug. 2, 1999)]; Matter of Bourdeau [DHCR Admin Review Docket No. *456TK230075RT (Mar. 9, 2006)]; and Matter of Papamichael Realty [DHCR Admin Review Docket No. UJ130059RO (May 11, 2007)]), in which DHCR has ruled that a rent increase based on a major capital improvement should be suspended as to certain apartments until particular problems are fixed. There are also a number of cases (including this one and those cited in footnote 1 of the Court’s opinion), in which DHCR has permanently exempted certain apartments from the increase. I accept the idea that both remedies are sometimes appropriate, and that DHCR has discretion to choose between them. What troubles me is that it is not easy to tell from DHCR’s decisions on what basis it is making the choice.
In this case, DHCR’s opinion is particularly unenlightening. The Commissioner says that the exemption should be permanent because various unsatisfactory conditions “existed in the apartments when work was completed just prior to the owner’s filing of the application for an MCI rent increase.” But is it not true in every case involving either a temporary or permanent exemption that a problem existed when the rent increase was applied for?
DHCR has a hard job, and courts should not make it harder by nit-picking. For this reason I join my colleagues in holding that the permanent exemption here was justified by the record. But I hope DHCR will do a better job in the future of explaining the policies and principles that guide its decisions to make exemptions from rent increases either temporary or permanent.
Chief Judge Lippman and Judges Ciparick, Read, Smith, Pigott and Jones concur with Judge Graffeo; Judge Smith concurs in a separate opinion.
Order affirmed, with costs.