Rent Overcharge Found Due to Pre-Base Date Rent Reduction Order

Rent-stabilized tenant complained to the DHCR in 2017 of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant directed landlord to refund $57,975, including interest and triple damages. The overcharge finding was based on a DHCR rent reduction order issued in 1994. The rent hadn't been restored until a later DHCR order was issued in 2020.

Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord argued that the DRA was wrong to consider the pre-base date rent reduction order when the complaint was based on other issues and didn't mention any rent reduction order. But an appeals court had already ruled in a similar 2018 decision that, even if tenant's complaint didn't reference any rent reduction order specifically, the DHCR generally was held to have knowledge of its own records, which would include any rent reduction orders. Landlord also argued that the 2020 decision of New York's highest court in Regina Metropolitan v. DHCR required that the rent charged and paid on the base rent date was the legal regulated base date rent. But the Regina court didn't overrule that court's 2010 decision in Cintron v. Calegaro. And another appeals court had applied the Cintron decision in 2023, after the 2020 Regina decision was issued. 

Eastchester Heights: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. LX610011RO (3/27/24)[4-pg. document]