Initial Rent Charged Over Four Years Before Tenant Complained

(Decision submitted by Jack Kuttner of the Manhattan law firm of Kucker Kraus & Bruh, LLP, attorneys for the landlord.) Tenant filed a fair market rent appeal in September 1984. The first rent-stabilized tenant had moved into the apartment in November 1978. The DRA ruled for tenant and reduced his rent based on a reduction of the 1978 initial stabilized rent. Landlord appealed, claiming that the DRA should have considered the rent history only back to April 1, 1980, since the legal regulated rent is deemed to be the rent charged on the date four years before the date of the initial registration on April 1, 1984. And since the first stabilized rent for tenant's apartment occurred before April 1, 1980, tenant's complaint regarding the initial 1978 rent should have been dismissed. The DHCR ruled for landlord. Under the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997, tenant can't challenge a rent charged more than four years before the filing of a complaint. Since tenant's complaint was filed more than four years after the first stabilized tenant first occupied the apartment, that rent couldn't be challenged. And there had been no rent overcharge since September 1980, four years before tenant's complaint was filed.

Loconsolo: DHCR Adm. Rev. Dckt. No. MB210019RP (4/17/98) [2-page document]