Tenant's Legal Rent Must Be Based on Prior Unit's Rent After Tenant Transfers to New Unit Within Building

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $8,434, including interest.

Tenant and landlord both appealed and lost. Tenant argued in her PAR that triple damages should apply to the overcharge finding. The DHCR disagreed. Tenant had moved from Apt. 17B to Apt. 1D after a fire in the building. While the DRA determined that the rent set for tenant in Apt. 1D should be set based on her rights and the rent history of Apt. 17B, it was an understandable error on landlord's part, under the unusual and specific facts of this case, that landlord set tenant's rent when she moved on the basis of the rent history of Apt. 1D. Tenant argued that the change in number of rooms she now had affected the amount of rent she should pay. But this didn't matter. What mattered in setting the rent was the rent history of the apartment. 

In its PAR, landlord claimed that the DRA's order was the result of an irregularity in vital matters. Landlord claimed that tenant didn't move from her prior apartment to the new apartment at landlord's request and that landlord shouldn't be bound by the rent history of tenant's prior apartment in setting the legal rent for tenant in the new apartment. But, in a separate administrative proceeding, the DHCR had made a final determination that tenant moved into Apt. 1D at landlord's request. Landlord never appealed that decision and couldn't revisit the issue through collateral attack in this case. 

Tatum/789 St. Marks Realty Corp.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket Nos. JX210035RT, JX210004RO (2/16/22)[7-pg. document]