No Proof Apartment Was Legally Deregulated

Tenant complained of rent overcharge. Landlord claimed that the apartment had been deregulated. The DRA ruled for tenant, finding that tenant’s legal rent was $1,500 per month, and ordered landlord to refund $1,634, including interest. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord didn’t prove that the apartment was deregulated. Tenant’s initial rent was $1,450, well below the $2,000 deregulation threshold. Landlord offered no explanation as to how the legal regulated rent was calculated prior to tenant’s occupancy. The 2007 (TE) and 2008 (PE) apartment registrations didn’t establish the amount of the legal regulated rent and, by themselves, weren’t proof that the apartment was permanently exempt from rent stabilization as of 2008. Annual apartment registrations aren’t reliable in the absence of other rent records to prove the legal regulated rent or rental status of an apartment. Here, landlord claimed that the apartment was employee occupied before 2008. Then the apartment was renovated and the the legal regulated rent was more than $2,000. But landlord didn’t produce prior leases, rent ledgers, and other documents that showed legal rent increases. 

Highbridge House Ogden LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. DS610027RO (1/6/16) [5-pg. doc.]