Prior DHCR Ruling Ordered Recalculation of Rent

Tenant sued landlord for rent overcharges collected between August 1995 and April 1996, based on a DHCR order issued in 1995. The DHCR order had reduced the apartment's 1987 fair market rent and ordered landlord to recalculate all subsequent rent increases to conform with the order. The court ruled for tenant. Landlord appealed, relying on the enactment of the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997 (RRRA 97). Landlord claimed that, under RRRA 97, tenant was barred from making an overcharge claim about the 1996 rent that was based on the 1987 adjusted rent. The court ruled against landlord. The DHCR's final order had directed recalculation of the legal regulated rent from 1987 forward. Once these recalculations were made, tenant's overcharge complaint didn't improperly go back more than four years. The annual registered rent between 1988 and 1994 must be deemed to have been effectively challenged by tenant's prior fair market rent appeal in 1988.

Ferrante v. 55 Spring St. Assocs.: NYLJ, p. 25, col. 1 (12/15/98) (App. T. 1 Dept.; Parness, PJ, McCooe, Gonzalez, JJ)