Tenant Can't Claim Improper DHCR Registration of Pre-Base Date Rents

Landlord sued to evict tenant for nonpayment of rent. Tenant asked the court to dismiss the case without trial and argued that the apartment was rent stabilized and had been improperly registered with the DHCR. The court ruled against tenant, who presented no proof of any leases that were inconsistent with landlord's rent registrations between 2008 and 2019. And rent registrations that weren't the product of fraudulent leases weren't defective. In addition, while the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (HSTPA) repealed a prior Rent Stabilization Law restriction against examining rent registrations filed more than four years before an overcharge claim was asserted, a retroactive application of that repeal would violate landlord's due process rights. And the law didn't permit use of dated rent registrations to calculate the legality of the rent landlord had been registering.

Bel-Air Leasing LP v. Berezovska: Index No. 74804/2019, 71 Misc.3d 1228(A), 2021 NY Slip Op 51513(U)(Civ. Ct. Kings; 6/3/21; Stoller, J)