Challenge to Vacancy Deregulation Not Subject to Four-Year Limit

Deregulated tenant, who paid rent of more than $2,000 per month, asked the DHCR to determine whether her apartment was rent stabilized. She claimed that landlord had fraudulently deregulated the apartment. Landlord pointed out that prior tenant also was deregulated on the base rent date and asked the DRA to dismiss the complaint. The DRA ruled against tenant. Tenant appealed, claiming that she moved into the apartment in January 2002 at a monthly rent of $2,395. The DHCR rent registration records showed that the apartment was registered to prior tenant Beinecke in 1984 at a rent of $729. The apartment was registered as vacant in 1986, and was never registered again. But another tenant said that Beinecke lived in the apartment until the late 1990s. Landlord, on the other hand, showed that prior landlord rented the apartment to a tenant named Brook for a year in November 1997 at a deregulated rent of $2,200. This tenant signed deregulated renewal leases through November 2001. Landlord also argued that the DHCR could look back only four years. The DHCR reopened the case and sent it back to the DRA. This wasn't an overcharge complaint. The DRA could look back more than four years to determine if the apartment had been properly deregulated.

Kahn: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. VA420049RT (3/25/08) [3-pg. doc.]