Pre-Base Date Rent Registration Can't Prove Preferential Rent

Tenant complained of a rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant, found that the legal regulated rent on the base date was $672, and ordered landlord to refund $3,400, including interest. Landlord appealed, claiming that $672, the rent actually paid on the base date, was a preferential rent and that the legal rent was $831. The base date, four years before tenant filed her complaint, was April 16, 2004. The lease in effect on the base date ran from Sept. 1, 2002, to Aug. 31, 2004. And the 2004 rent registration showed both the legal rent and preferential rent. The DHCR ruled against landlord. The 2004 rent registration statement documented the April 1, 2004, rent. Since this was before the base date, the DHCR couldn’t consider it as proof of the base rent.

AD Diversified Management, LLC/Fleming: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket Nos. XF210014RO, XF210033RT (9/25/09) [7-pg. doc.]