Rent Restoration Not Retroactive to Date Compliance Proceeding Closed

Facts: Tenant complained of a reduction in services. The DRA ruled for tenant and reduced his rent. Landlord later applied for rent restoration based on restoration of services. The DRA restored tenant's rent retroactive to April 1, 1995. Landlord appealed and lost. Tenant had filed her complaint on Oct. 3, 1985. The DRA's order reducing tenant's rent was issued on Aug. 11, 1986, with an effective date of Jan. 1, 1986. Landlord filed its rent restoration application in February 1987. The DRA denied landlord's application in November 1987, and landlord didn't appeal that ruling. The DHCR's compliance bureau sent landlord a letter in December 1988 advising landlord that tenant stated in a phone conversation that services had been restored. The DHCR subsequently sent a letter to both tenant and landlord advising them that it was closing the compliance proceeding. Landlord didn't reapply for rent restoration until 1989. In 1991, the DRA ruled against landlord since a new DHCR inspection showed that the conditions originally complained of still (or again) existed. Landlord reapplied again in December 1994. On Aug. 2, 1996, the DRA ruled for landlord and restored tenant's rent. Landlord appealed to the court, claiming that the rent should have been restored effective Feb. 1, 1989, when the compliance proceeding was closed. Court: Landlord loses. Under the rent stabilization code, an order restoring rent is to be made effective as of the first rent payment date occurring 30 days after landlord files its application to restore rent. Landlord didn't file the approved application to restore rent until December 1994, so there was no basis to complain about the resulting rent restoration date.

Weinreb Mgmt.: Index No. 121582/97 (7/10/98) (Sup. Ct. NY; Freedman, J) [7-page document]