Triple Damages on Overcharge Reduced Based on Regina Case

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge in 2017. The DRA ruled for tenant in September 2019 and applied a six-year base date to the complaint based on HSTPA changes to the Rent Stabilization Law provisions on rent overcharge. The DRA directed landlord to refund $15,994, including triple damages beginning six years before the complaint was filed.

Landlord appealed and lost, but the DHCR then reopened the case to reconsider. The DHCR ruled for landlord in part. The DRA's application of the HSTPA lookback and triple damages provisions was improper in light of the April 2020 decision of New York's highest court in Regina Metro. v. DHCR, which ruled that the overcharge calculation amendments of HSTPA can't be applied retroactively to overcharges that occurred prior to HSTPA's enactment on June 14, 2019. In this case, the result didn't change since the overcharge began within four years before tenant's complaint was filed. But the application of triple damages to the entire overcharge award violated the Regina decision. Triple damages could be assessed only on overcharges occurring since two years before tenant's complaint was filed. So the total overcharge was $15,000.

288-295 Maple Holding LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. IS210064RK (8/26/20) [4-pg. doc.]