Order Restoring Rent-Controlled Tenant's Rent Can't Be Retroactive

(Decision submitted by Manhattan attorney Eileen O’Toole, who represented the tenant.)

Rent-controlled tenant complained of a reduction in services after a fire rendered his apartment uninhabitable. The DRA ruled for tenant and reduced his rent to $1 per month. Landlord later applied for rent restoration after tenant was restored to possession. The DRA ruled for landlord on Nov. 4, 2009, but made the rent restoration retroactive to Feb. 3, 2009. Tenant appealed and won. The DRA’s rent restoration order mistakenly stated that tenant was rent stabilized. But under Rent Control Regulation Section 2202.2, an order increasing or decreasing the maximum rent can’t be effective prior to the date that the order is issued. So the correct effective date for tenant’s rent restoration was Dec. 1, 2009, the first rent payment date after the issuance date of the rent restoration order.

Lawless: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. XL420005RT (5/11/10) [2-pg. doc.]