Four-Year Rule Bars Tenant’s Claim

Rent-stabilized tenant filed a specific rent overcharge complaint, claiming that landlord collected an illegal washing machine surcharge. Tenant claimed that she had the washing machine when she first moved into the apartment in 2007 and that landlord didn’t start collecting the fee until 2009. Landlord argued that it began collecting the surcharge as soon as it discovered the washing machine in 2009. The DRA ruled against tenant. Since tenant was already paying the surcharge on May 20, 2010, the four-year base rent date for tenant’s overcharge complaint, the legality of the fee couldn’t be challenged under Rent Stabilization Code Section 2526.1(a)(2). Rental events occurring more than four years prior to the base rent date aren’t subject to review. Tenant appealed and lost. Tenant claimed that the washing machine surcharge wasn’t rent and therefore wasn’t subject to the four-year rule. The DHCR found that while the washing machine surcharge wasn’t part of the legal regulated rent, it was a “rental event” that the DHCR had long held was part of the rental history subject to the four-year statute of limitations on overcharge complaints.

Alejo: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. CU610009RT (6/22/15) [3-pg. doc.]