Tenants Changed Apartments Without Preferential Rent Agreement

Tenants complained of a rent overcharge. They lived in a six-room apartment but agreed in 2009 to move into a four-room apartment in the building offered by landlord. Landlord paid tenants to move and charged them $925 per month without a lease. Six months later, in 2010, landlord gave tenants a vacancy lease for the new apartment at $1,390 per month with a preferential rent of $925. But, since tenants paid $925 per month for the new apartment without a lease or preferential rent agreement, the legal rent could be no more than $925. And, since tenants changed apartments for landlord’s benefit, their new rent must be based on their prior legal rent in the first apartment, not on the rent history of the new apartment. Tenants’ legal rent was $925 per month.

Garcia/Ramos: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. ZL410004RT (8/23/12) [3-pg. doc.]