Tags: Rent Stabilized status, five or more independently-rented rooms with communal kitchens and bathrooms can count towards threshold of 6+ units needed for rent stabilization status.
Summary: Subdivided Units Counted Towards De Facto Designated Rent Stabilized Building
Decision: PDF file
Mohamed v. Abdulai
Date filed: November, 1, 2017
Court: City Civil Court, Bronx-Housing
Judge: Judge Miriam Breier
Docket Number: 37125/2016
Case Digest Summary
Petitioner sought to recover an apartment leased to respondent, alleging that respondent was an unregulated month-to-month tenant whose tenancy expired following a 30-day notice of termination. In defense, respondent alleged the premises was a de facto rent stabilized apartment, and her tenancy could only be terminated under the Rent Stabilization Code. Petitioner's witnesses testified that there were only two units in the building, one occupied by respondent and the other by petitioner's family, while petitioner allowed a friend who lived elsewhere to use the residence to enroll her daughter in the school district. Respondent alleged that there were five rooms in the second apartment occupied by different people, while there were also people living in the basement unit. The court found that the evidence established that each of the two legal apartments in the building had been separated into rooms with communal kitchens and bathrooms. Thus, because there were more than six units in the building, which was constructed prior to 1974, the court ruled that the building was subject to rent stabilization, and granted respondent's request for a rent stabilized lease.