Landlord Can't Amend Annual Rent Registrations to Increase Listed Rents

Landlord asked the DHCR for permission under Rent Stabilization Code Section 2528.3(c) and 2522.6(b) to amend an apartment’s annual rent registrations for 2014 and 2015. The DRA ruled against landlord, who appealed and lost. Landlord sought to reflect recalculated rents on the registration forms, claiming that it needed to do so to correct the legal rents to reflect proper vacancy increases. But the Rent Code was amended in 2014 to stop unsupervised rent registration amendments because it corrupted the purpose of the DHCR’s rent registration database and contributed to potential fraudulent conduct. There was no sufficient justification in this case to permit landlord to amend registrations to increase the amounts of registered rents.

1718 Harmon LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. ES110014RO (2/14/17) [3-pg. doc.]