Court Must Recalculate Overcharge

Tenant sued landlord, claiming improper deregulation of her apartment, that she was rent stabilized, and that she was overcharged. The court ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund rent overcharges.

Landlord appealed and won, in part. The lower court froze tenant's rent because the apartment hadn't been registered since 1998. But the court should have lifted the rent freeze prospectively after landlord filed missing annual rent registrations. Those registrations reflected the proper legal regulated rent during the tenancy, including lawful increases. So landlord was entitled to collect the current legal rent as of May 2017 when it filed missing rent registrations.

The court correctly applied triple damages to any overcharge finding but improperly awarded tenant prejudgment interest prior to the date of its decision. Interest on a rent overcharge award is generally authorized from the date of the initial monthly overpayment, except when triple damages are imposed in lieu of interest from the date of the monthly overcharge to the date of the court's decision. The case was sent back to the lower court to recalculate overcharge damages and interest, using a six-year statute of limitations in effect under the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (HSTPA).

Grady v. Hessert Realty LP: 2019 NY Slip Op 08598, Index Nos. 153565/17-10147A, 10147, 10146 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; 12/3/19; Acosta, PJ, RIchter, Mazzarelli, Webber, Kern, JJ)