Landlord Didn't Prove Tenant Paid Preferential Rent

Tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant and found that because landlord failed to establish that there was a previously higher legal rent, the monthly $910 rent paid on the April 20, 2012, base date became the legal regulated rent. The DRA ordered landlord to refund $29,000, including triple damages for willful rent overcharge.

Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that there had been a preferential rent. But the Rent Stabilization Code permitted the DRA to examine pre-base date rent history records to confirm that both the legal regulated rent and preferential rent were stated in each lease since the inception of the preferential rent. Landlord's rent registrations indicated that a preferential rent was first charged in 2004. But the renewal lease signed by tenant in 2004 listed only one rent amount. The signed lease is more reliable than rent registrations to determine the legal rent. Landlord didn't produce leases dating back to 1997 showing that it previously preserved a higher legal regulated rent in all other leases so that the 2004 lease could be disregarded as an outlier. And none of the apartment registrations before 2004 listed two rents. 

147-25 Northern Associates, LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. FV110008RO (8/3/18) [6-pg. doc.]