Fair Market Rent Appeal Was Untimely

The first rent-stabilized tenant of an apartment filed a fair market rent appeal more than four years after moving in. The DRA dismissed the complaint as untimely. Tenant appealed and lost. Rent Stabilization Code Section 2522.3 states that a fair market rent appeal can't be filed more than four years after an apartment is no longer rent controlled. The prior rent-controlled tenant died in 2004 and the first rent-stabilized tenant moved into the apartment in 2005. Tenant moved into the apartment in November 2010 and filed his fair market rent appeal in 2012, seven years after the apartment was no longer rent controlled. So the complaint was untimely. It didn't matter that landlord never filed an initial RR-1 registration form for the apartment. Tenant also claimed fraud by landlord, but there was no proof. The apartment's MBR was $1,548 in 2004 and the rent guideline in effect at that time permitted landlord to increase the MBR by 50 percent to set the fair market rent. So the initial legal regulated rent was over $2,000 per month and therefore subject to deregulation after the building's J-51 benefits expired on June 30, 2010. 

Park: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. BR410014RT (8/12/14) [11-pg. doc.]