DHCR Can't Re-examine Rent History Period Covered in Prior DHCR Overcharge Order

(Decision submitted by attorney Paola Arzeno-Barbano of the Manhattan law firm of Kossoff, PLLC, attorneys for the landlord.)

Tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled against tenant, finding no overcharge. Tenant appealed and lost.

Among other things, tenant argued that the DRA failed to follow provisions of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (HSTPA) by ignoring landlord's fraudulent and willful overcharges that were established by a 2016 DHCR order. Based on the April 2020 decision of New York's highest court in Regina Metropolitan Co., LLC v. DHCR, the DRA applied an incorrect base date in this case. The base date should be July 25, 2014, four years before tenant filed her complaint. But the erroneous base date didn't affect the correctness of the DRA's decision. The DRA properly relied on the finding of a prior 2016 DRA order that was affirmed by the DHCR in 2017.

In that case, all issues concerning illegalities or fraud in relation to rent overcharges for the apartment occurring before Sept. 9, 2016, were fully and finally determined by the DHCR and can't be considered again in tenant's subsequent complaint. The DRA therefore correctly considered only rental events occurring after Sept. 9, 2016. Here, the DRA correctly found that tenant's monthly legal regulated rent, as well as the collectible rent, was $2,150, and that tenant never paid more than this amount. And contrary to tenant's claim, the apartment was never deregulated.

Gurevich: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. IN410012RT (9/10/20) [5-pg. doc.]