Tenant Can Seek Overcharge from 1987
LVT Number: 8623
Landlord sued to evict tenant for nonpayment of rent. Tenant claimed a rent overcharge. The trial court ruled for tenant, and landlord appealed. Landlord claimed that tenant's overcharge claim was improper. The appeals court ruled against landlord. Tenant's overcharge claim extended back to June 1987, four years before tenant submitted its answer to landlord's nonpayment petition. June 1987 was four years before tenant's claim and, therefore, wasn't time-barred. The legal regulated rent, under the rent stabilization law and Code, is the rent on the annual registration statement filed four years before the most recent registration statement. Tenant's claim of a willful rent overcharge and, therefore, triple damages was properly limited to overcharges collected from June 1989, two years before tenant submitted its answer.
Wilshire Control Co. v. Kaps: NYLJ, p. 21, col. 1 (2/25/94) (App. T. 1 Dept.; Ostrau, PJ, Miller, Glen, JJ)