Landlord Must Produce Rent History Records Back to 2002

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for nonpayment of rent. Tenant claimed rent overcharge due to a 10-year gap in DHCR annual apartment registrations between 2003 and 2014. Tenant also claimed that the rent listed in the 2014 registration exceeded the legal collectible rent. The court granted tenant's request for pretrial questioning and directed landlord to produce documents from 2002 to 2014. Landlord later asked the court to dismiss tenant's overcharge claim, and argued that the Court of Appeals April 2020 decision in Regina Metropolitan v. DHCR barred production of rent history records going back so far. The court ruled against landlord. While the Regina decision may ultimately affect the calculation and recovery of potential overcharges, there were exceptions to the pre-HSTPA four-year lookback period. And, while the leases and registration statements contained discrepancies, landlord offered no explanation for the inconsistencies, raising factual issues that barred granting landlord summary judgment.

J. Diamond LLC v. Spirodonov: Index No. 56273/19, NYLJ No. 1601024250 (Civ. Ct. Kings; 8/21/20; Kuzniewski, J)