MBR Lawsuit Update

On March 27, the State Supreme Court in Kingston dismissed the landlords? lawsuit against the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal. The landlords had sued the DHCR in an upstate court to stop the implementation of the city law which returns the 1996/1997 MBR factor to 3%. Judge Joseph P. Torraca ruled that the case belongs in the New York City court since the issue involves only people who live in New York City.

As of this date, we do not know how the DHCR will react to the decision. It had put the 96/97 MBR under suspension and had refused to determine the 1998/99 MBR factor (which, under normal circumstances, would have been determined by November of 1997).

If the DHCR refuses to implement the 3% MBR factor, the issue will be settled in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Last fall, the City of New York sued the DHCR in the Manhattan court demanding that the agency implement the 3%.

At issue in the lawsuit is a battle between the City of New York which says that the DHCR should use a certain formula for determining the MBR factor, and the State of New York which wants to use a different formula. The formula favored by the state resulted in a factor of 32.4% for 1996/97; the law passed by the City Council in September 1997 1after vigorous lobbying by tenants, resulted in a factor of 3%.

What should tenants do? Wait until the DHCR sends you a new notice. As soon as Met Council gets any news, we will do a new mailing to our members who are on our rent control list.

This decision came in just as Tenant/Inquilino was going to press. Next month’s issue will have the full story.