Court Approves Tenants' Request to Subpoena DHCR Records

Tenants sued landlord, claiming rent fraud, willful rent overcharge, breach of the warranty of habitability, and breach of lease. Tenants asked the court to issue subpoenas duces tecum to order DOB, HPD, and the DHCR to produce certain records. Specifically, tenants asked the court to issue a subpoena to the DHCR directing the issuance of "all documents and communications concerning the building apartments, and/or defendants, including but not limited to those concerning rent registrations, inspections, complaints, potential or actual violations of any federal, state, and/or city housing regulations; reports of any remedial measures; or fines issued and/or paid; and all documents and communications between you and defendants relating to or concerning rent registrations, the building, apartments, and/or [tenants] from September 23, 2009 to present." Landlord opposed issuance of the subpoena and argued that it was patently improper and not narrowly tailored to tenants' complaint. 

The court ruled against landlord. Tenants showed that the documents and records maintained by the DHCR were material and necessary to the facts at issue since they alleged that landlord engaged in a fraudulent scheme of intentionally overcharging tenants, illegally increasing the rent in tenants' apartments and other apartments in the building with the goal of deregulating the apartments, and filing rent registrations with the DHCR reflecting higher legal regulated rents (LRRs) and/or higher preferential rents than indicated on tenants' leases. The DHCR's documents and records from 2009 through 2024 were relevant to determine whether landlord engaged in a decades-long fraudulent scheme to deregulate tenants' apartments and other apartments in the building.

The court found that landlord had failed to satisfy its burden that the subpoenaed documents were "utterly irrelevant to any proper inquiry," given tenants' allegations of landlord's illegal and fraudulent deregulation of their apartments. Also, the DHCR submitted no objection to producing the requested documents. 

DeLeon v. 560-568 Audubon Realty, LLC: Index No. 154546/2022, 2024 NY Slip Op 33695(U)(Sup. Ct. NY; 10/15/24; Morales-Minerva, J)