In Their Own Words
New Yorkers Speak Out About DHCR
"It is truly impossible to reach anything but a recording at the
[DHCR public information] number. I know... I tried for
several hours over a period of three days last week. The central
number answered with a recording which told me that my call was
in line for the next available staff person. Then, unlike most
recordings, it went back to a ringing sound. I held on for a
minimum of 20 minutes each time I called and nothing ever
happened."
Loren Renz
Small Property Owners of New York
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"Since DHCR has taken over, the paperwork within our office has
tripled. When we file an answer to a tenant's complaint, we must
always refile the same answer at least once. DHCR almost always
loses the original papers."
Kenneth Fishel
Ken-Rob Professional Real Estate company
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"My original filing was lost by the DHCR. I was given incorrect
information from the DHCR... I have made numerous calls to the
DHCR about this error only to be switched back and forth from one
person to another without any results. No one has ever
acknowledged the error and no one has ever taken on the
responsibility to correct it. The Agency has moved 14 times since
April 1, 1984 so that it has become impossible for workers to
review and process the cases or to know where papers should go.
Cases and papers are continuously lost. Neither of the letters
that I sent to DHCR have been answered..."
Jeff Bretl
New York City Tenant
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"The cost of these mistakes and delays run into millions of
dollars. One attorney sent in seven cases of miscalculated rent
overcharge orders totaling, with interest, $93,400.00 for seven
mistakes by DHCR."
Dan Margulies, Executive Director,
Community Housing Improvement Program
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"The situation has become so bad that DHCR has resorted to form
letters advising tenants that their files have been lost. On
careful reading, the letter is almost nonsensical. It states, in
the second sentence:
'The evidence and statements the owner submitted
to the file, together with any information you
might also have submitted, is a matter subject to
consideration by this agency.'
It then goes on to say that the file cannot be located. I fail to
understand how the evidence and statements submitted to the file
can be subject to consideration by DHCR when they cannot find the
file."
David Rosenberg, Esq.
Summit, Rovins & Feldesman
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"Recently four calls resulted in four conflicting responses on
the procedures involved in filing an overcharge complaint. A call
made about MCIs elicited the response, 'what does MCI stand
for?"'
Maria Mottola
Lenox Hill Neighborhood Association
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"The evidence of mismanagement and abuses of both due process and
substantive rights of tenants is pervasive... The abuses have
become systemic. They are evident in every unit within rent
administration, and tenant protections have become thoroughly
ineffective."
William Rowen, Chairperson
NYS Tenant & Neighborhood Coalition
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"My supervisor didn't like treble damages and I never did a case
myself that was assigned to me with treble damages."
Elsie Carney
State Rent Examiner
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"They need to be trained. We cannot get people from the clubhouse
to run an economic commodity. These people do not know the ABC's
of the field."
Grace Liota, President
Affiliated Property Owners of
Kings, Queens and Richmond Counties
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"The system is set up to discourage people from appealing for
help. One would think that DHCR's sole purpose is to dispose of
their caseload rather than judge them on its merits."
Gretel Neuberger, President
Kips Bay Tenants Association
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"In a normal business community, such incompetence would not be
stood for. People will be called to account long before the time
of this hearing. These are not new complaints that we are
addressing; they are old complaints. And people in a sense are
being worn out with them."
Charles Kaufman, President
Westchester Tenants' League
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"I was told [by supervisor Stuart Dabbs] that if nine out of ten
cases slipped through, the tenant can always file an appeal."
David Saphire
State Rent Examiner
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"We were informed directly [by supervisor Ed Rasquin] that he
didn't care if the cases were right or wrong, he just wanted them
out."
Elliot Vizansky
Sate Rent Examiner
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"How can anybody protect their rights, give an intelligent answer
when they can't find the files?"
Richard Albert
NYC Owner
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"...we have one-thousand ninety-five hundred file cabinets in our
inventory in the basement of the Gertz offices... The files
themselves can be located. When necessary, we send somebody down
to the basement with a flashlight."
Manuel Mirabal
DHCR Deputy Commissioner
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"Administrators who don't know what to do with forms that are
sent and what procedures are; public information staff who give
different responses to the same question; cases backlogged for
years that can't be found or are forgotten; letters getting
"lost"... make three phone calls within 5 minutes of each other,
asking the same question. Results - three different responses.
Sandra DeVita, President
Campus Hall Association of Tenants
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"DHCR has been plagued by inefficiency, incompetence and gross
negligence. Thousands of tenants of rent-controlled and Emergency
Tenant Protection Act apartments live within Westchester County,
and the Senator has received countless complaints regarding
DHCR's failure to act. Telephone calls and correspondence with
the Division through Spano's office yielded no response."
News Release, March 1987
NYS Senator, Nick Spano
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"I recently received a decision from DHCR regarding a complaint a
former tenant made about the way a former owner filed an
apartment registration. This tenant complained in August, 1984
that his 4 room apartment should really be listed as a 3 room
apartment. DHCR determined on February 5, 1987 that the tenant
was right. It took DHCR 2 and 1/2 years to handle this complaint.
Our life times are hardly long enough to deal with DHCR's concept
of time."
William H. Gronwald
NYC Owner
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"Mr. William B. Eimicke
New York State Director of Housing.
Dear Mr. Eimicke:
I have received a Notice of Filing of Petition For Administrative
Review and Opportunity To Respond (attached) which lists the
mailing address of tenant as follows:
William B. Eimicke
93-43 222nd St., Apt. 1G
Queens Village, NY 11428...
I have a problem completing the attached Answer To Notice And/Or
Application... To my knowledge, I do not have a tenant by the
name of William B. Eimicke."
Richard Albert
NYC Owner
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"The Landlord and Tenant Committee felt that DHCR is not properly
administering either the rent control or rent stabilization
systems. And this was the feeling of the entire committee. Files
are misplaced, there is a lack of uniformity of procedures and
decisions, and there's a long waiting period.... Just to get
on the phone with the agency is enough to require a couple of
aspirin. There is a complete lack of respect for members of the
Bar or the public."
Morton Newburg
NYS Bar Association
Real Property Law Section
Landlord and Tenant Committee
------------------
"I was brought up on Charles Dickens and I must say, some of the
description here reminds me of Bleak House, and if any of you
ever read Bleak House you will understand what I mean... We've
always had a struggle with administrative agencies, but it has
gotten now to the point of tragedy and utter absurdity."
Jane Benedict
Honorary Chairwoman of the
Metropolitan Council on Housing
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"Overall, the performance of DHCR has been outstanding."
William B. Eimicke
DHCR Commissioner
DHCR Report to the Legislature
on the Management of the Office of Rent Administration,
February 1986