DHCR Default Formula Applied to Set Base Date Rent

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $34,000, including triple damages and interest. The DRA used the default formula to set the base date rent because landlord didn’t submit a base date lease. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord argued that the DRA incorrectly applied the default formula. But the DHCR found that the DRA properly applied the default formula set forth in Rent Stabilization Code Section 2522.6. Rent registration data for the base date couldn’t be relied on alone to determine the base rent. And the registered rents in this case weren’t reliable. The base date rent registration matched a prior lease listing a rent of $914.70. But subsequent annual rent registrations didn’t corroborate the base date rent. The figures presented by landlord as lawfully following the alleged base date rent also didn’t correlate with the rents listed on subsequent registrations. So the registrations couldn’t be used to prove the rent history during the four years since the base date. There also was no proof of the individual apartment improvements (IAIs) landlord claimed were made, and landlord submitted no rent ledgers. 

1326 Riverside Drive LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. ES410055RO (1/4/17) [7-pg. doc.]