DHCR Can Consider Pre-Base Date Overcharge Ruling When Deciding New Complaint

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge in 2017. The DRA ruled for tenant, finding that the base rent date was June 1, 2011, which was six years prior to the filing of tenant's complaint and finding a total overcharge of $170,000 that included triple damages on the entire overcharge. In response to landlord's request for reconsideration, the DRA found that the base date was June 1, 2013, which was four years before the complaint was filed, that the base date rent was $889 per month, and that the total overcharge was $135,372.

Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that the DRA incorrectly established the base date legal regulated rent (LRR) by using information found in a prior 2014 DHCR rent overcharge determination for the apartment. Landlord argued that the prior rent overcharge determination was different from a rent reduction order. New York's highest court had ruled in the 2010 case of Cintron v. Calogero that the DHCR could refer to a rent reduction order to determine an overcharge claim, even if the rent reduction order was issued before the base rent date. 

The DHCR ruled that the agency could rely in a new overcharge proceeding on a prior overcharge ruling, even if the prior ruling was issued before the base rent date for the new overcharge claim. The DHCR pointed out that in the case of Renaissance Equity Holdings LLC v. DHCR, a Kings County court had ruled in 2021 that, like the mandate in the Cintron case, the DHCR had to consider a pre-base date overcharge ruling as part of an apartment's rent history. In addition, the DHCR pointed out that, in this case, the prior DHCR overcharge ruling had been issued after the four-year base date. And landlord's failure to comply with the prior DHCR overcharge ruling in setting tenant's rent showed willful rent overcharge.

647 Prospect LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. KX210009RO (1/18/23)[3-pg. document]