Landlord Didn't Respond to Requests for IAI Documentation

The DHCR's Tenant Protection Unit (TPU) referred a rent overcharge complaint to the DRA after landlord failed to comply with a TPU determination of rent overcharge following an audit of individual apartment improvements (IAIs) claimed to have been done in the apartment. The DRA ruled against landlord and ordered a refund to tenant of $11,530, including triple damages.

Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord argued that the TPU had no standing to issue an order concerning the apartment rent, and that triple damages shouldn't apply. The DHCR stated that Rent Stabilization Code Sections 2520.4 and 2520.5 permitted the DHCR to delegate authority to the TPU and to implement the rent stabilization law and code. Rent Stabilization Law Section 26-516 also permitted the DHCR itself to initiate a proceeding. The base date for the overcharge complaint was four years before the date the complaint was referred to the DRA by the TPU. Despite a number of requests from the DRA, landlord failed to submit all requested documentation. The DRA also sent a DHCR inspector to the apartment who found that some claimed work wasn't done. So they disallowed about $500 of landlord's claimed $60,000 IAI costs. Due to landlord's repeated failure to submit necessary documentation after various DRA requests, the DRA properly assessed triple damages.

Flanagan: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. EW210059RO (5/25/17) [3-pg. doc.]