No Fraud Found in Connection with Rent Overcharge Claim

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled against tenant, who appealed and lost. Tenant claimed that landlord substantially increased her rent upon lease renewal. But the DRA found that tenant's base date lease documented a legal regulated rent and a preferential rent, and that landlord was entitled to discontinue the preferential rent upon lease renewal. In her PAR, tenant claimed rent fraud. But tenant didn't raise any claim of a fraudulent scheme to deregulate the apartment before the DRA. So, the DHCR couldn't consider this new claim in tenant's PAR. In addition, there was no proof of fraud. There had been a 16-year dispute as to whether apartments in the building were rent stabilized. In a prior decision, the DHCR ruled that tenants were rent stabilized because the building was part of a horizontal multiple dwelling (HMD). Landlord's failure to register tenant's apartment or to give tenant a rent-stabilized lease while claiming that the building was unregulated wasn't an indication of fraud. A mere increase in rent, like the one in 2004-2005 that tenant pointed out, also wasn't sufficient to sustain claims of fraud. 

Roberson: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. IS210076RK (2/11/21) [3-pg. doc.]