$96,000 Rent Overcharge

Tenant complained of a rent overcharge. Landlord said that tenant wasn’t rent stabilized. Landlord claimed that prior tenant requested and agreed to pay a rent increase for apartment improvements costing $12,826. This entitled landlord to add $320 to prior tenant’s rent when tenant moved in. Since the legal rent was then over $2,000, there was no overcharge and landlord was entitled to charge tenant $2,600 per month. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund over $96,000, including triple damages.

Landlord appealed and lost. Tenant had questioned landlord’s documentation of prior tenant’s consent to a rent increase and said that some of the claimed improvements weren’t done. Tenant also submitted statements from other building tenants who said that prior tenant made some of the claimed improvements. The DRA also sent an inspector to the apartment. The DRA disallowed an increase for prior tenant’s renewal lease because it wasn’t signed by prior landlord and because prior tenant’s signature on that renewal predated the date of the renewal offer. The DRA also didn’t believe that prior tenant requested that work be done in the apartment a few months before he moved out. The legal rent when tenant moved in was $1,700, not $2,600, and the apartment remained rent stabilized.

FRG 9th Avenue LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. XG410011RO (12/2/09) [4-pg. doc.]