DHCR Won't Determine Amount Owed, Just Whether a Refund Is Due

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRO ruled for tenant, finding an overcharge of $191. But since tenant owed back rent of $7,038, there was no refund due to tenant. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that tenant paid rent totaling $87,645 during the period in question, not $98,425 as determined by the DRO. Therefore, the DRO’s order should have listed the amount of tenant’s rent arrears as $17,818, not $7,038. But landlord didn’t dispute the DRO’s determination of the legal regulated rent or that no overcharge refund was due. It is within the DHCR’s authority to determine the legal regulated rent, the amount of rent increases allowable, whether the tenant had paid a rent in excess of the legal regulated rent, and whether tenant was owed a refund. The DRO reasonably relied on proof of rent payments that was presented. And the Rent Stabilization Law didn’t authorize the DHCR to make a final decision on the amount of rent arrears owed by a tenant to a landlord. The only reason the DRO listed the rent arrears owed was to specify whether a refund was owed to tenant.

212 East 182 Realty Corp.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. DV610038RO (3/1/16) [2-pg. doc.]