Four-Year Time Limit Applies

Facts: Tenant moved into a rent-stabilized apartment in July 1980. Tenant filed a fair market rent appeal on time in September 1984 in response to receipt of the initial rent registration form for his apartment. The apartment had been decontrolled after 1974. Landlord couldn't produce rent records for the period before 1978, so the DRA treated the 1978 rent as the first stabilized rent. The DRA ruled for tenant, finding that the first stabilized rent in 1978 was greater than the fair market rent. Landlord appealed. The DHCR ruled against landlord in 1995, and landlord challenged the DHCR's ruling in court, claiming a four-year time limit applied to fair market rent appeals. The DHCR argued that the four-year rule didn't apply. The court agreed with the DHCR but sent the case back for reconsideration of landlord's other claim that the DRA's three-year delay in notifying landlord of tenant's complaint interfered with landlord's ability to produce the required records. Two years later, in 1998, the DHCR ruled for landlord based on a change in the law under the Rent Regulation Reform Act (RRRA) of 1997. The DHCR now found that the four-year time limit applied to fair market rent appeals. Tenant appealed. The court ruled for tenant, finding that the DHCR couldn't change its position to be inconsistent with its prior decisions. The DHCR and landlord appealed. Court: Landlord and the DHCR win. The RRRA applied to any case that was pending at the DHCR on June 17, 1997. The DHCR's interpretation of the law was consistent with the legislative intent of limiting record-keeping requirements for landlords. Since tenant's complaint was filed in September 1984, the fair market rent was the rent charged to tenant in September 1980.

Perry v. DHCR: NYLJ, 4/2/01, p. 32, col. 3 (App. Div.2 Dept.; O'Brien, JP, Krausman, Friedmann, Schmidt, JJ)