Old Rule Applied to Apartment Vacant on Base Date

Tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled against tenant, finding that she was unregulated. Tenant's apartment was vacant on the base date of Dec. 1, 2006, four years before tenant filed her complaint. The DRA ruled that the initial legal regulated rent therefore was the first rent paid by the next tenant following the base date. Since the amount of that rent was $2,100 per month, that rent was not subject to challenge. Moreover, since that rent was over $2,000 per month, the apartment was exempt from rent stabilization. Tenant appealed and lost. Rent Stabilization Code Section 2526.1(a)(3)(iii) was amended in January 2014 to provide a new rule for determining the initial legal rent when an apartment was vacant on the base date. But the DHCR isn't applying the new rule to cases like this one, where the DRA's decision was issued before the rule went into effect, because that would be unfair to landlords. And there was no proof of fraud warranting review of rent history records predating the base rent date. [PDF]

Keim: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. AQ410041RT (3/31/14) [4-pg. doc.]