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WELCOME TO THE
WESTVIEW TASKFORCE WEB SITE
www.westviewtaskforceinc.org
Important Notice October 8, 2009
On Monday Sept 28, 2009 WTI filed an Article 78 Petition asking
the NYS Supreme Court to review and reverse the recent DHCR 14.9% rent increase order. We specifically pointed out
to the Court a number of material errors committed by DHCR.
These material errors include:
1. DHCR’s decision that tenants, not the owners, should be responsible for the $1,000,000 shortfall created
by the Owners illegal warehousing from Feb/2004 thru Feb/2007.
2. DHCR’s decision to assess tenants with Owners Mortgage Arrears at $163,000 in violation of the law and common
sense. In the history of the building such an assessment has never been made. Worse yet, the Owners themselves
didn’t even ask for this in their sworn rent increase petition.
3. DHCR’s erroneous decision to provide only a one year budget vs the legally mandated two-year budget. This error
resulted in inaccurate projections of various expenses with adverse results on tenants.
4. DHCR’s failure to balance the needs of Tenants and Owners as legally required.
DHCR has previously refused to address these issues. Now they will have no choice but address them in open Court.
Because this judicial process may take a few months, we also asked the Court to consider immediate temporary
relief to protect tenants facing hardships due to the recent rent increase. On October 2nd, a hearing was held
before NYS Supreme Court to discuss such immediate relief. The result is the enclosed hardship affidavit for tenants facing financial hardship due to the
recent rent increase.
In the meantime, our attorneys recommend that if you have not yet paid your October rent, and if you believe that
paying the rent increase that became effective Sept 1, 2009 would present a significant hardship (*) to you, and
you plan on filing a hardship affidavit, then pay your October rent but only in the amount your rent was prior to
the September increase; for the time being, you should not pay the amount of your rent that represents the recent
14.9% increase. If you have already paid your full rent for October, you may not request any money back from
housing company.
If you know of a neighbor or friend living in Westview who is not aware of this opportunity for relief, please be
sure to forward this information to them. Affidavits will be treated as highly confidential and will be shown only
to those persons required by the court.
Additionally, we are scheduling a Q&A meeting for all tenants on Tuesday 10/13 @ 8pm in the Westview Lower
Community Room. Affidavits must be notarized and returned in the enclosed confidential envelope to the Westview
Taskforce drop box located in the 625 lobby no later than Friday 10/16.
Please note that the disposition of any rent increase monies that are withheld will be determined by the Court at
the conclusion of the process (in a few months). If the Court concurs with our position, as we hope it will,
you’ll most likely keep the monies. Otherwise, monies that are withheld may become due to the housing company in
full.
Please review all the enclosed information carefully. We look forward to providing you with a more complete update
and answering any questions you may have.
(*) A “significant hardship” means that you cannot pay the increase without it causing you and/or your family to
suffer in some considerable way; it doesn’t mean that you would simply prefer not to pay it.
__________________________________
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rev. 10/07/09
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