Base Date Rent Is Rent Collected, Not Registered Rent

LVT Number: #21075

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of a rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $11,000, including triple damages. Landlord appealed, claiming that the DRA incorrectly calculated the base date rent at $716 per month. Landlord argued that the base date rent should be the annual registered rent filed four years before the most recent registered rent. Landlord’s registered rent was more than the $716 rent collected on the base date, which landlord claimed was a preferential rent.

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of a rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $11,000, including triple damages. Landlord appealed, claiming that the DRA incorrectly calculated the base date rent at $716 per month. Landlord argued that the base date rent should be the annual registered rent filed four years before the most recent registered rent. Landlord’s registered rent was more than the $716 rent collected on the base date, which landlord claimed was a preferential rent.

The DHCR ruled against landlord. Tenant had filed his complaint on Aug. 20, 2007, so the base rent date was Aug. 20, 2003. On Aug. 8, 2003, landlord offered tenant an untimely renewal lease that stated that the prior lease expired on July 31, 2003, and that the renewal lease would start on Sept. 1, 2003. Since there was no lease in effect on the base date, the legal regulated rent on the base date was the rent charged and paid on that date, $716. Landlord admitted that the April 1, 2003, registered rent was filed before the base rent date and therefore couldn’t be considered under the four-year rule. Although landlord argued that the DRA should have used the April 1, 2004, registered rent to determine the base rent, the registered rent is always the rent on April 1 of a given year and may not be the same as the rent collected on the earlier base rent date. And registered rents must always be subject to independent verification.

LJST Realty Corp.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. WD210030RO (11/4/08) [7-pg. doc.]

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