Overcharges Due to Failure to Register Apartment Eliminated by Filing Before DRA Ruling

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge in 2016. The DRA ruled for tenant and froze the rent at a pre-base date amount due to landlord's failure to file annual rent registrations from 2007 onward. The rent also was frozen due to a 2010 rent reduction order. The total overcharge, including triple damages, was $162,900.

Landlord appealed and won, in part. The DHCR agreed with landlord that, pursuant to Rent Stabilization Code Section 2528.4, its filing of missing rent registrations prior to issuance of the DRA's order eliminated all overcharge penalties related to the failure to register the apartment. However, the DHCR disagreed with landlord's additional claim that triple damages shouldn't apply to any overcharge resulting from failure to freeze the rent as a result of the rent reduction order. Although New York's highest court ruled in Cintron v. Calogero (2010) that triple damages wouldn't apply to an overcharge finding in that case based on a pre-base date rent reduction order, 13 years had passed since the Cintron decision was issued. And, in this case, landlord knew about the applicable 2010 rent reduction order and had applied to the DHCR unsuccessfully four times to have the rent restored. Landlord also made no attempt to refund overcharges and interest while tenant's overcharge complaint was pending. The total overcharge, with triple damages, was reduced to $146,686. [Download a PDF of the decision here.]

618 Associates, LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. LT410005RO (11/7/23)[3-pg. document]