Landlord Couldn't Document Preferential Rent

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $19,736, including triple damages and interest. Landlord appealed and lost. Tenant moved into the 421-a building in 2012 at a monthly legal regulated rent (LRR) of $7,949 with a preferential rent of $3,000. The DRA found that the LRR was $3,000 because landlord produced no records proving that the rent paid was a preferential rent. Landlord claimed that leases for prior tenancies were destroyed in a flood but that the DHCR should rely on apartment registrations documenting both the higher LRR and the preferential rent. But registrations alone, without contemporaneous rent records, can't establish the LRR. And a rent ledger submitted for the prior tenant didn't establish the legal regulated rent. 

125 Court Street LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. IS210071RK (12/9/20) [3-pg. doc.]