Landlord Didn't Answer Rent Overcharge Complaint

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge. Her initial rent was $1,400 per month, and she claimed prior tenant paid $836 per month. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $72,000, including triple damages. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord didn’t respond to two requests for rent history records or to a final notice of triple damages. Landlord submitted rent history documents with its PAR, claiming individual apartment improvements (IAIs) costing $8,100 had been performed before tenant moved in and that a longevity increase should be granted since prior tenant lived in the apartment for 29 years. But landlord didn’t submit any proof of the rent history going back to the base date while the complaint was pending before the DRA. So the DHCR couldn’t consider it for the first time on appeal. The DRA correctly set the base rent at $750 using the statutory default formula, which freezes the rent from the base date. Imposition of the default rent formula also presumes that the overcharge was willful.

B-Emet Realty Corp.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. ET610053RO (11/7/16) [4-pg. doc.]