Court Won't Review Rent History Going Back to 1996

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for nonpayment of rent. Tenant claimed rent overcharge, and the court granted tenant's request for permission to conduct pretrial questioning and document production dating back to 1996.

Landlord then asked for permission to renew arguments on this question. Landlord argued that tenant hadn't raised sufficient indication of fraud that would warrant rent record review going back more than four years before tenant raised her overcharge claim. Although tenant raised her overcharge claim before June 14, 2019, the court's prior decision was issued on July 1, 2019, shortly after passage of HSTPA and its sweeping changes to rent overcharge provisions and the lookback period. The court's prior decision was based on unreliable rent registration in 1997, making the 1996 registration the base rent under HSTPA. But the Court of Appeals April 2020 decision in Regina Metropolitan v. DHCR revoked retroactive application of HSTPA provisions concerning an older base date. The court could only look back that far if there was an indication of a fraudulent scheme to deregulate the apartment.

The court ruled for landlord. Tenant didn't present sufficient proof of a fraudulent scheme to deregulate the apartment. Tenant didn't claim that landlord misrepresented the apartment's status. And the apartment rent never reached the deregulation threshold. Tenant's request to conduct discovery of the apartment rent history going back to 1996 was now denied.

699 Venture Corp. v. Zuniga: Index No. 19533/19, 2020 NY Slip Op 20241 (Civ. Ct. Bronx; 9/24/20; Bacdayan, J)