No Overcharge Where Initial Rent-Stabilized Rent Not Challenged Within Four Years

(Decision submitted by attorney Elizabeth Lentini, of the Manhattan law firm of Borah, Goldstein, Altschuler, Nahins & Goidel, P.C., who represented the landlord.)

The DHCR's Tenant Protection Unit (TPU) complained to the DRA that landlord overcharged tenant. The DRA ruled against TPU and found no overcharge. The DRA applied the six-year base date to the case, now required by the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA). The apartment was rent controlled in 1973 and was vacancy decontrolled on March 30, 2012, when the rent-controlled tenant moved out. The current tenant was the first rent-stabilized tenant who moved in after the rent-controlled tenant moved out. The apartment was therefore subject to a fair market rent appeal, not an overcharge claim. And Rent Stabilization Code Section 2522.3(A) provides that no fair market rent appeal may be filed after four years from the date the apartment was no longer subject to rent control. The complaint was filed in July 2017, more than four years after the rent-controlled tenant vacated. So, the initial rent-stabilized rent of $1,800 charged in 2013 was the legal regulated rent and there was no overcharge.

L&C Realty: DHCR DRO Docket No. FS410081R (11/25/19) [2-pg. doc.]