Deduction Cost Them Regulated Status
A 2019 Loft Board determination which granted protected occupancy status to two tenants was recently found to be “arbitrary and capricious” and “unanimously annulled, on the law and facts” by the Appellate Division, First Department.
Apparently, since the tenants listed the rent as an expense on their business-tax returns, that deduction was found to have “precluded them from claiming that they were occupying the unit in question as their primary residence.” And thus negated their claim to regulated status.
And the agency’s determination that the rear hallway constituted a part of the tenant’s space was also found to be erroneous given that the lease expressly provided that “common areas, doors, and hallways must remain unobstructed” and thus ran contrary to such a claim. The AD1 noted, “tenants’ use of the hallway for storage of personal items was not dispositive.”
You're free to arrive at your own deductions there ....
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