Failure to Obtain Lease Records at Building Purchase No Defense

Tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $31,500, including triple damages. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord argued that it didn't own the building at the time the overcharge occurred and had no lease records. But apartment registrations are unaudited statements from the landlord and therefore not reliable proof of the legal base date rent. Without proof of the base date rent, the DRA properly applied the statutory default rent formula to set a base date rent. Application of the default formula also freezes the rent from the base date and therefore doesn't permit the addition of rent increases after the base date. Use of the default formula also presumes that an overcharge was willful. The failure to maintain rent records is not a defense to an overcharge case or the imposition of triple damages. And it was no defense that a new owner failed to obtain copies of rental records from prior owner.

147th Apt LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. GU410016RO (10/10/19) [3-pg. doc.]