Insufficient Proof of Individual Apartment Improvements

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $66,000 including interest. Landlord appealed and lost. The DRA had added a rent increase for some individual apartment improvements (IAIs) in its calculation of tenant's legal rent but disallowed costs totalling $27,500. Landlord claimed that it wasn't given sufficient opportunity to submit documentation of the costs, which was in storage. Prior to the decision of the Court of Appeals in the Roberts case, landlord also had believed that tenant was deregulated. The DHCR ruled against landlord. The DRA wasn't required to give landlord formal notice before issuing its decision. Landlord had submitted a check payable to a contractor in the amount of $27,500. But the DRA sent landlord a notice asking which apartment, what work, and what invoice the check related to. Landlord didn't respond. So landlord had submitted insufficient proof of what the claimed cost related to, and the rent increase was properly disallowed.

London Terrace Gardens LP: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. AV410025RO (9/30/13) [6-pg. doc.]