DHCR Reviews Pre-Base Date Rent Overcharge Order to Decide Whether Preferential Rent Was Proper

Tenant complained of rent overcharge and claimed that landlord collected an excess security deposit. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $8,200, including triple damages. The DRA noted that a prior 2009 DHCR decision had set the legal regulated rent at an amount lower than charged. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that there was no legal basis to consider a pre-base date order that wasn’t a rent reduction order. The DHCR found that the DRA properly reviewed the pre-base date rent history in order to determine whether there was both a preferential rent and a higher legal regulated rent. The DRA properly looked the prior 2009 DHCR order to see if the rent set by that order comported with the rent in tenant’s lease and to consider that rent in connection with whether landlord properly charged tenant a preferential rent. The order was within the appropriate review period to determine a preferential rent, so the DHCR didn’t have to consider whether the DRA could have considered a 20-year-old non-rent reduction order.

Flatbush Patio, LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. EP210052RO (10/5/16) [5-pg. doc.]