Tenant Ordered to Sign Lease to Preserve DRIE Benefits While Case Pending

Rent-stabilized tenant complained to the DHCR that landlord failed to offer her a renewal lease on the same terms and conditions that were contained in her expiring lease. She claimed that landlord was charging her a monthly rent of $802.40 when the Disability Rent Increase Exemption (DRIE) program she was enrolled in froze her rent at a lower collectible amount of $674.31. Separately, tenant also had filed a rent overcharge complaint. The DRA ruled against tenant and directed her to sign the offered renewal lease and return it to landlord.

Tenant appealed and lost. Since the renewal lease offer was timely and since a renewal lease must be signed in order to continue tenant's DRIE benefits, the DRA prudently directed tenant to sign the offered renewal lease. Whether the lease contained the correct rent amount and whether surcharges noted in the lease were correct would be decided in the pending rent overcharge proceeding. If warranted, the DRA can direct landlord to amend the renewal lease in the overcharge proceeding.

Lewis: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. KS210018RT (9/14/22)[2-pg. document]