Tenant's Lease Violation Complaint Dismissed Because He Hadn't Signed Renewal Lease

Rent-stabilized tenant filed a lease violation complaint with the DHCR in February 2023. Tenant claimed that he had lived in the unit since 1984 and that the last renewal lease landlord provided expired on Sept. 30, 2015. In response, landlord pointed out that tenant filed a similar DHCR complaint in 2019, which the DHCR had denied because tenant didn't dispute that landlord made a renewal lease offer in December 2018 and that tenant never signed that renewal lease, which would have commenced on Feb. 1, 2020. Tenant appealed and lost. Tenant's claim that his new complaint was unrelated to the prior complaint was incorrect. And landlord had started an eviction proceeding in housing court based on tenant's refusal to sign the renewal lease offered previously. So the DHCR would defer to the pending court action.

Fisher: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. MR410008RT (8/15/24)[3-pg. document]