Landlord Proved Apartment Was High-Rent Vacancy Deregulated Before 2019

Tenant complained to the DHCR of improper deregulation of his apartment and rent overcharge. The DRA ruled against tenant, finding that landlord showed it had a right to deregulate the apartment when the rent level reached $2,733.75 or more upon vacancy in 2018. The legal regulated rent beginning on Jan. 1, 2018, was $2,890.62.

Tenant appealed and lost. The DHCR found no error in the RA's ruling. The absence of a Certificate of Occupancy at the building did not, in and of itself, prevent rent increases for the apartment that brought the rent to a level above the deregulation threshold in 2018. Tenant's unsupported claims of "rampant fraud" in the building or in another apartment at the premises, of DOB violations, fictitious leases, of illegal or repetitive individual apartment improvements (IAIs), or of inaccuracy in the building's valuation, show that there was any irregularity in the rents that led to high-rent vacancy deregulation. A mere allegation of fraud alone didn't warrant examination of pre-base date rental events. And whether a 2019 apartment lease supposedly acknowledged that the unit was rent stabilized wasn't relevant because the DHCR's jurisdiction over the apartment was only based on operation of law and because jurisdiction over the apartment already was lost before 2019.

Elimelech: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. LP410004RT (12/28/23)[3-pg. document]