Berkeley Kay Corp. v. New York City Conciliation & Appeals Board

113 A.D.2d 331, 496 N.Y.S.2d 1, 1985 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 52375
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedDecember 3, 1985
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 113 A.D.2d 331 (Berkeley Kay Corp. v. New York City Conciliation & Appeals Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Berkeley Kay Corp. v. New York City Conciliation & Appeals Board, 113 A.D.2d 331, 496 N.Y.S.2d 1, 1985 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 52375 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Milonas, J.

Respondent-appellant New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, as successor to the New York City Conciliation and Appeals Board (CAB), appeals from a judgment of the Supreme Court, New York County, granting a petition brought pursuant to CPLR article 78 to the extent of annulling, in part, an order issued by the CAB. Petitioner-respondent Berkeley Kay Corp. cross-appeals from so much of the judgment which upheld the CAB’s declassification of the Hotel Berkeley as a hotel and directed that Berkeley cancel its membership with the Metropolitan Hotel Industry Stabilization Association, Inc., enroll with the Rent Stabilization Association of New York City, Inc., and offer tenants one- and two-year leases.

Petitioner is the owner of the Hotel Berkeley, located at 170 West 74th Street in Manhattan, a residential building which is a member of the Metropolitan Hotel Industry Stabilization Association. Ninety-three of its units are subject to the Rent Stabilization Law. Administrative proceedings were initiated by 26 tenants of the Hotel Berkeley, who filed complaints challenging the building’s status as a hotel. According to the tenants, the owner had been receiving the benefits of the rent stabilization rules for hotels, such as charging first rents on vacancy and collecting yearly hotel guidelines increases, while nonetheless failing to provide any hotel services. The tenants alleged that not only was the owner not furnishing mail service, furniture, linens and other such services, but that it had represented the building to them as an apartment house, offering them apartment rather than hotel leases. In that respect, copies of the leases submitted by the tenants indicated that the units were being rented unfurnished, without maid service, without linen service and without telephone switchboard service.

In its answer, Berkeley did not dispute the tenants’ contention regarding the lack of hotel services. The owner merely asserted that the subject building was a hotel, that it was a member in good standing of the Metropolitan Hotel Industry Stabilization Association, that it followed the rules applicable to such buildings and that it had not represented any dwelling [333]*333unit as a rent-stabilized apartment. The CAB then endeavored to ascertain whether Berkeley was in compliance with the uniform standards which the agency had adopted for the purpose of determining whether a particular building was appropriately classified as a hotel. To that end, the CAB requested that the owner fill out a questionnaire stating whether on June 30, 1983, a minimum of 50% of the stabilized tenants in the subject premises were actually receiving maid and linen service and whether the owner was willing, within 90 days, to provide certain specified services. Berkeley’s response to the first question was "no”. The owner replied to the second query by asserting that if it were given additional compensation above the current rents, it would be willing to supply the enumerated hotel services.

Based upon the record before it, including the owner’s admission that it was not furnishing hotel services to the ° tenants, the CAB rendered an opinion, dated January 26, 1984, in which it found that the building was improperly classified as a hotel. The agency rejected the owner’s offer to restore services since it was conditioned upon a further rent increase. In the view of the CAB, the owner had been accepting the special benefits available under hotel stabilization without providing the required hotel services. Thereupon, the agency, pursuant to Administrative Code of City of New York § YY51-3.1 (as added by L 1983, ch 403, § 43, eff June 30, 1983), reclassified the building to apartment house status and directed that, as of the date of the CAB’s order, all future rent increases be imposed in accordance with the guidelines applicable to apartment houses. Additionally, to "avoid a hardship for those tenants whose terms of rental currently include customary hotel services such as furniture, linen, and maid service, such tenants shall continue to receive the hotel services they now receive for the remainder of their tenancy.” Thereafter, the CAB stated, the owner would be permitted "to discontinue hotel services prior to renting such unit(s) to the next tenant(s) at no adjustment in rent based on the elimination of hotel services.”

Concluding that Berkeley had unlawfully charged hotel guidelines rents and first rents on vacancy during the period from July 1, 1982, the CAB imposed a rollback to the rent in effect on June 30, 1982. The agency noted that while prior to the amendment of the Hotel Code (Code of Metropolitan Hotel Industry Stabilization Association, Inc., enacted pursuant to Administrative Code of City of New York § YY51-6.1 [a], and [334]*334approved by City Housing and Development Administration, eff Oct. 10, 1969) in July of 1982, the owner might have argued that it met the definition of a hotel for stabilization purposes by having made hotel services available, it could no longer make such a claim. Under the revised Code, the CAB pointed out, the owner was mandated to actually provide customary hotel services in order to collect annual hotel guidelines increases and first rents. Berkeley was thus required to refund or credit any and all excess rent increases and security. Moreover, as the dwelling units in question would now be covered by the rules pertaining to apartment stabilization, the agency directed the owner to offer tenants renewal leases for one or two years, at the latter’s option, which would run prospectively at the appropriate apartment increase above the rent actually charged and paid on June 30, 1982. The CAB then specifically held that the scope of its order applied not only to the apartments of the 26 complainants but to the entire premises.

In granting Berkeley’s petition to the extent of setting aside that part of the CAB determination which rolled back the rents to those charged on June 30, 1982, Special Term decided that the administrative action had been based upon an improper retroactive reclassification of the building under Laws of 1982 (ch 403, § 43). According to the court, if what petitioner was doing before the enactment of section 43 was not improper at that time, no agency of government should penalize it because at a later date different standards or requirements were adopted. However, an examination of the record herein reveals that the CAB’s order was not predicated on a retroactive finding that on June 30, 1982, the Berkeley was not a hotel. On the contrary, the agency determined that on June 30, 1982, the Berkeley was classified as a hotel and collected hotel guidelines increases but did not supply the necessary hotel services. Further, Special Term erred in its opinion that the owner was entitled to additional compensation for any extra services which it may be compelled to furnish. The administrative order did not direct the owner to provide any additional services. It merely found that the owner had received compensation for services which it was not, in fact, supplying.

Pursuant to both hotel and apartment stabilization, owners are permitted periodic increases in rent. In the case of hotels, owners may generally charge higher guideline increases and, until recently, were authorized to charge an unrestricted free [335]*335market rent upon vacancy. In exchange, they were required to provide a more extensive package of services than were owners of apartment buildings.

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Bluebook (online)
113 A.D.2d 331, 496 N.Y.S.2d 1, 1985 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 52375, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/berkeley-kay-corp-v-new-york-city-conciliation-appeals-board-nyappdiv-1985.