Triple Damages Due on Rent Overcharge Due to Incomplete Refund
LVT Number: #30936
Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $12,954, including triple damages. Tenant appealed to the DHCR and lost, then filed an Article 78 court appeal.
The DHCR took the case back for further consideration. Based on the April 2020 court decision in Regina Metropolitan v. DHCR, the lookback period in this case was changed from six years to four years since the case was filed before HSTPA was enacted in June 2019. And tenant didn't show that the rent was unreliable based on a fraudulent scheme. But the DHCR should have awarded triple damages on a portion of the overcharge that landlord had refunded to tenant before the DRA ruled on tenant's complaint, because landlord failed to refund interest with that overcharge. The total overcharge was $13,547.
Elliston/Grant: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. IM610007RP (7/16/20) [4-pg. doc.]
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