Triple Damages Applied to Overcharge Resulting from 20-Year-Old Rent Reduction Order

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of overcharge in 2012 based on an outstanding rent reduction order. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $112,655, including triple damages. Landlord appealed and lost. The rent reduction order was in effect from May 1, 1993, through June 30, 2013. This froze the legal rent at $233 per month. But landlord ignored the order and continued to collect rent increases until the rent was restored to $1,547 effective July 1, 2013. Landlord claimed that it didn’t know about the rent reduction order but had filed a PAR against the order at the time it was issued. In light of a 2010 ruling by New York’s highest court in Cintron v. Calogero that an outstanding rent reduction order froze the legal rent despite the four-year rule, landlord should have known that it was unlawfully collecting rent increases.

Nevei Bais Inc.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. CS410011RO (3/18/15) [5-pg. doc.]