Four-Year Time Limit Not Triggered by ICF or High-Rent/High Income Petition

(Decision submitted by Manhattan attorney Eileen O'Toole, who represented the tenants.)
Facts: Landlord sent tenants an Income Certification Form (ICF) on Feb. 18, 2007, stating that tenants' legal rent was $2,003. In June 2007, landlord filed a high-rent/high-income deregulation application. Tenants answered both, stating that their legal rent was $1,998, not $2,003. Tenants also filed a DHCR complaint on June 11, 2007, disputing landlord's claim that $1,998 was a preferential rent. The DHCR ruled for tenants. Rent history records dating back to June 11, 2003, showed no preferential rent on the base date. Landlord appealed to the court and argued that the base date should be Feb. 18, 2003, when it sent tenants the ICF. That way, the DHCR could consider the April 1, 2003, rent registration listing $1,998 as a preferential rent as part of tenant's rent history.
Court: Landlord loses. Sending tenants the ICF didn't start any administrative proceeding before the DHCR. And the four-year lookback period is triggered only by the filing of a tenant complaint. Filing a high-rent/high-income deregulation application doesn't trigger application of the four-year rule.

63rd Street Owner, LLC v. DHCR: Index No. 113457/08 (5/27/09)(Sup. Ct. NY; Diamond, J) [3-pg. doc.]