300 Wadsworth LLC v. New York State Div. of Hous. & Community Renewal, 2022 NY Slip Op 06311 (2022)

Approximately one month before the enactment of the HSTPA on June 14, 2019, plaintiff landlord entered a renovation agreement with a contractor to perform $99,580.00 worth of claimed improvements to Apt. 1M, then vacant, in the landlord's residential building, which had 95 rent-regulated units. The renovations continued through the month of June 2019, and no evidence was offered as to when they were actually completed, let alone approved by the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) as proper individual apartment improvements (IAI) for rent increase purposes in factoring the proper rent-stabilized rent for that apartment going forward. As the HSTPA amendments appreciably limited the monthly rental increase the landlord could seek for the alleged improvements, as compared to the rent increases allowed under the pre-HSTPA IAI rent increase laws, the landlord claimed a vested interest in the pre-HSTPA IAI rent increase laws because it had commenced work on the proposed improvements two weeks before the enactment date for the HSTPA amendments.