Rizzo v. New York State Division of Housing & Community Renewal
New York Court of Appeals · 2005-12-20 · cited 39×
This case concerned a landlord's application to the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) for certificates of partial eviction under New York City rent regulations, seeking to subdivide two under-occupied rent-controlled apartments in a Manhattan building to create a new duplex unit, based on the landlord's inability to achieve an 8.5% net annual return without evictions. DHCR granted the applications after an audit, inspection, hearing, and findings that the apartments were under-occupied and the financial condition was met, but one tenant died shortly after the final agency determination, deregulating her unit. The tenant challenged the determination in an Article 78 proceeding, and the trial court vacated DHCR's order and remitted the matter for the agency to consider the impact of the deregulation on the landlord's financial return. The Court of Appeals affirmed the Appellate Division's reversal, holding that courts reviewing final DHCR determinations on eviction certificates may not consider or remit for de novo review of events arising after the agency's decision. The core reasoning was that Article 78 judicial review is strictly limited to the factual record before the agency at the time of its determination.