Rent Frozen at Preferential Rent

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant based on a pre-base date 1995 rent reduction order and froze tenant’s rent at $700.  Landlord was ordered to refund $44,839, including interest. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord argued that the rent should have been frozen at $842 because this was the legal regulated rent in effect prior to the most recent guidelines increase on the effective date of the rent reduction order. But since tenant paid a preferential rent under a vacancy lease rider stating that the preferential rent would continue for tenant’s occupancy and not simply for a particular lease period, tenant was entitled to the benefit of the preferential rent for all purposes, including how the rent was adjusted under a pre-base date rent reduction order. 

554-558 181 Street LP: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. DX410018RO (4/26/16) [4-pg. doc.]