No Proof of Preferential Rent on Base Date

Freeport rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $8,500. Landlord appealed, claiming that the rent paid by tenant on the base date four years before his complaint was filed was a preferential rent. Therefore, the higher legal regulated rent was properly increased upon lease renewal. The DHCR ruled against landlord. The lease in effect on the base date made no mention of any preferrential rent, and the Tenant Protection Regulations prevent the DHCR from looking back more than four years at rent history records. So, the base date rent was the legal regulated rent, and landlord collected an overcharge upon lease renewal.

ATM Three LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. WH710045RO (6/8/10) [4-pg. doc.]