712 Realty, LLC v. Poliard, 2024 NY Slip Op 24016 (2024)

The documents appended to tenant's brief show that tenant's rent had been reduced pursuant to a 2015 DHCR order which determined that there had been, at that time, a severe mold condition throughout the apartment, among other things, and that landlord applied to DHCR to restore tenant's rent on or about January 10, 2019, while the instant proceeding was pending. Tenant also appended a DHCR Notice of Settlement dated July 18, 2019 (shortly after the June 5, 2019 Civil Court decision herein), in which landlord, as owner, among other things, agreed to settle and address noncompliance issues in tenant's apartment and paid a civil penalty. Given the time frame of the settlement, it is likely the DHCR proceedings were in progress at or about the same time landlord's agent was representing to the lower court an absence of violations in tenant's apartment. Tenant's saga continued as there is a handwritten note on the copy of the July 18, 2019 Notice of Settlement stating that the case should remain open until landlord fixed the apartment. This note is followed by a November 22, 2019 letter from tenant explaining landlord's noncompliance with the Notice of Settlement. Thereafter, pursuant to an inspection conducted on July 23, 2020, DHCR issued a July 29, 2020 order denying landlord's application to restore the rent reduction of 2015, finding that the rent-reducing conditions (i.e., the mold) had not been corrected. The DHCR order and the finding that "the mold condition was ongoing" were consistent with tenant's trial testimony and the photographs the self-represented tenant submitted at trial.