Tenant's DHCR Lease Complaint Issues Already Pending in Court Case

Tenant filed a lease violation complaint with the DHCR. He claimed that the renewal lease landlord offered, to start on May 1, 2019, wasn't offered on the same terms and conditions as the expiring lease. Tenant said that landlord was trying to introduce a higher legal regulated rent that wasn't specified in either of the two prior renewal leases. Tenant had filed an overcharge complaint in court in August 2019. Landlord claimed that it had mistakenly failed to list the higher legal regulated rent in two prior lease renewals, that tenant had refused to sign amended renewal leases offered by landlord, and that the issue would be decided in tenant's pending court case. The DRA terminated tenant's "RV" complaint since it was based only on rent overcharge issues that were already before the court in a separate action.

Tenant appealed and lost. Tenant argued that landlord's failure to preserve the higher legal regulated rent in prior renewal leases had nothing to do with his court claim. But the DHCR found that the tenant's court complaint was filed before the DHCR RV complaint. The overcharge claim before the court was intrinsically tied to landlord's failure to preserve the legal rent in prior renewal leases. So the court would rule on the correct amount of the legal regulated rent and whether there was any waiver.

Trapp: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. KP410028RT (10/25/22)[2-pg. document]