No Proof Landlord Charged Preferential Rent

Tenant complained of a rent overcharge. Tenant claimed that landlord charged more than the permitted guidelines increases at the start of tenant's September 2007 renewal lease. Landlord claimed that she previously charged tenant a preferential rent and was entitled to discontinue the preferential rent with tenant's latest renewal lease. The DRA ruled against landlord, finding that there was no preferential rent. Landlord appealed, claiming that the legal regulated rent under tenant's prior renewal lease was $1,283 and that tenant's current rent of $1,338 reflected a lawful guidelines increase. The DHCR ruled against landlord. Landlord claimed that the $1,012 rent charged on the base date four years before tenant filed his complaint was a preferential rent. But landlord didn't submit a base date lease to the DRA, although requested to do so. So the DRA properly determined that the rent in effect on the base date was the legal regulated rent, not a preferential rent. The fact that landlord registered $1,283 as the legal regulated rent in the 2007 rent registration form didn't prove what tenant's legal regulated rent was. The DRA correctly ruled that the legal rent under tenant's September 2007 renewal lease was $1,196.

Partridge: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. VK110103RO (2/8/08) [3-pg. doc.]