No Triple Damages Where Landlord Issued Rent Credit

(Decision submitted by Karen Schwartz-Sidrane of the Rockville Centre law firm of Sidrane & Schwartz-Sidrane, LLP, attorneys for the landlord.)

Tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $12,000, including triple damages. Landlord appealed, claiming that the overcharge wasn't willful. The DHCR ruled for landlord and revoked the triple damages. The overcharge resulted from an outstanding 1992 rent reduction order, which froze tenant's rent. Although landlord didn't tender a full refund to tenant within the time to answer the complaint, it made a good faith attempt to refund the overcharge with interest by issuing a rent credit to tenant at the same time that it answered the complaint. And the Court of Appeals decision in Cintron v. Calogaro, which permitted the DHCR to include older rent reduction orders as part of the rent history to determine rent overcharges, wasn't decided until 2010. Before then, while tenant's case was pending, landlord had no reason to believe that the 1992 rent reduction order would be at issue.

Ger Spigel, Inc.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. AS210014RO (10/21/14) [6-pg. doc.]