Default Method Properly Applied to Set Base Date Rent

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $11,846, including triple damages. Landlord appealed and lost. The DRA correctly found that the base date lease submitted by landlord was unreliable and invalid. The lease was dated Nov. 1, 2008, but was printed on a DHCR form that wasn’t issued until March 2010. The lease also didn’t contain any commencement or expiration dates. And the lease indicated that tenant had selected a one-year term while landlord’s 2009 rent registration stated that tenant was under a two-year lease term. Because the base date lease was invalid and landlord failed to submit a rent ledger as requested, the DRA properly applied the DHCR’s default method to establish tenant’s base date rent. The DRA applied the lowest stabilized rent from the DHCR’s registration records for the same size apartment in the same building. 

Milazzo: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. CV110023RO (4/8/15) [3-pg. doc.]