DHCR Finds No Overcharge

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge. Tenant had moved into the apartment in 2002 and filed her overcharge complaint in 2016. The DRA found no overcharge since the 2012 base date.

Tenant appealed and lost. Tenant claimed that the DHCR should look back more than four years to review rent history records. Tenant argued that landlord didn't file rent registrations in 2002, 2012, or 2013. Tenant also had submitted an architect statement saying that he saw no renovations that would have justified a rent increase and that other apartment conditions weren't fixed until 2015, therefore justifying a rent abatement. The DHCR noted that Rent Stabilization Code Section 2526.1(a)(2)(iv-ix) lists exceptions to the four-year rule. But tenant neither claimed nor showed that any of these exceptions applied in this case. Tenant's claims that renovations weren't performed prior to the base date or that the apartment wasn't registered with the DHCR before the base date didn't trigger a pre-base date rental inquiry.

Meyer: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. FQ410045RT (10/30/18) [3-pg. doc.]