Tenant Claims Rent History Fraud

Tenant of a deregulated apartment sued landlord in 2005, claiming that he was rent stabilized and that he was being overcharged. The court ruled that the DHCR should decide the issue. Landlord then asked the DHCR to determine the rent regulatory status of tenant's apartment. The DRA dismissed the case without ruling on the merits because tenant hadn't filed a rent overcharge complaint. Landlord appealed. The DHCR reopened the case and sent it back to the DRA for further consideration. Landlord claimed that tenant's apartment was deregulated under the high- rent, vacancy decontrol provisions. Landlord submitted copies of leases from 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2003. The older leases were for rents over $2,000 per month, while the 2003 lease was for a rent of $1,900 per month. Tenant claimed that landlord's request for a decontrol determination should be dismissed because the rent-stabilized rent was increased from $385 to $2,000 in 1999. Tenant said that prior tenants were landlord's immediate family members or friends and that landlord was committing fraud. Generally, the DRA could review rent history records for only four years prior to the filing of a rent overcharge complaint. But here, tenant had questioned whether the prior tenancies and rents were legitimate, and the DHCR said that this charge should be investigated by the DRA. This was appropriate given landlord's claim of decontrol, the large jump in rent from 1998 to 2000 without the installation of any apartment improvements, tenant's claim that one or more of the prior tenants had a family or personal relationship with landlord, and the substantial decrease in the 2003 rent of $2,500 per month to tenant's rent of $1,900 per month in 2003. The DRA could request copies of monthly rent ledgers for the relevant period to determine whether tenants actually took occupancy. The DRA also could ask landlord to try to get sworn statements from the tenants listed in the prior leases.

Lem Lee 13th Ltd. Partnership: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. VD420037RO (9/4/07) [3-pg. doc.]