No Proof Landlord Charged Preferential Rent on Base Date

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of a rent overcharge under her 2009 renewal lease. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $7,060, including triple damages. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that it lawfully discontinued tenant's preferential rent when it renewed her lease in 2009. But tenant had no written lease in effect on the Aug. 24, 2005, base date for her complaint. So the rent collected on that date was the legal base rent. It didn't matter whether leases signed before that date showed a preferential rent and a higher legal regulated rent. 

ZIK Realty Corp.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. ZK410043RO (10/18/12) [3-pg. doc.]