DHCR Will Reconsider Tenant's Fraud Claim

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge. She said that her initial 2003 vacancy lease didn't refer to her rent as a preferential rent. Therefore, her current legal rent should be based on the $750 charged in 2003. The DRA ruled against tenant, finding that the base date legal regulated rent was $1,644 and the preferential rent was $992. The DRA found no overcharge. Tenant appealed, claiming that landlord had engaged in a fraudulent scheme to deregulate the apartment by illegally increasing the rent from $750 in 2003 to $1,314 in 2004. Tenant said that landlord filed a false registration in 2004, improperly claiming a vacancy increase based on individual apartment improvements (IAIs) and that the DHCR should have looked back more than four years to examine the rent history. The DHCR ruled against tenant, who then filed an Article 78 court appeal. The court sent the case back to the DHCR for reconsideration, and the DHCR ruled that the DRA should make a new determination of the legal regulated rent. 

Garcia: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. DO210006RP (3/18/15) [2-pg. doc.]