No Overcharge Found Where Landlord Clarified IAI Payments

(Decision submitted by Elizabeth A. Lentini of the Manhattan law firm of Borah, Goldstein, Altschuler, Nahins & Goidel, P.C., attorneys for the landlord.)

Tenant complained of rent overcharge. He moved into the apartment in September 2018 and paid $2,000 per month rent. Tenant claimed that individual apartment improvement (IAI) rent increases claimed by landlord were unlawful. The DRA ruled against tenant, finding no overcharge.

Tenant appealed, claiming that landlord failed to submit sufficient documentation of the IAIs and questioned some of the cancelled checks submitted for the work. The DHCR noted that the DRA had incorrectly applied a six-year base date to the case. Since the overcharge complaint was filed before HSTPA was enacted on June 14, 2019, a four-year lookback period applied. The DHCR also found that two of the checks submitted by landlord in support of the IAIs had handwritten notations in the memo section listing a different property address, and the DRA needed to clarify their applicability to the IAIs at issue here.

The DHCR sent the case back to the DRA, who issued a Remand Order, again finding no overcharge. On remand, landlord submitted a sworn statement from its contractor, confirming that the two checks totalling $13,000 were payments for the work completed in tenant's apartment.

Elkin: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. IQ410001RT (9/16/20); DRO Dckt. No. IU410007RP (5/4/21) [5-pg. doc.]