Landlord Filed Fraudulent Rent Registrations for SRO Tenants

Rent-stabilized rooming house tenant complained of rent overcharge in 2011. The DHCR ruled against tenant, finding that his rent had been $450 per month at all times since the base rent date four years before the complaint was filed. Tenant then filed an Article 78 court appeal, claiming that the DHCR unreasonably ignored his fraud claim. The court sent the case back to the DHCR to investigate whether landlord had committed fraud in an attempt to improperly deregulate tenant's room.

The DHCR ruled for tenant, finding that landlord's conduct constituted a fraudulent scheme to deregulate tenant's room. Prior tenant paid $280 per month in 2003, and landlord impermissibly restricted rooms in the building to transient tenants. Landlord also filed fraudulent registrations from 2004 to 2007, listing the legal rent for tenant's room at $1,000 per month. Tenant had moved into the room in 2004 at a 28-day rent of $450. In 2008, his rent was changed to $450 per month. The DHCR found that landlord's actions were part of a fraudulent scheme to deregulate the room and therefore used its default method to set tenant's base rent at $434 per month. Landlord was ordered to refund $1,479, including triple damages.

Campbell: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. BV210005RP (8/20/14) [4-pg. doc.]