Landlord Must Renew 421-a Tenant's Lease Based on Rent Paid

Tenant complained to the DHCR that landlord refused to offer him a renewal lease and disputed landlord's claim that the apartment's legal rent was $3,300 per month. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to give tenant a vacancy lease at a monthly legal regulated rent of $1,800. Tenant moved into the apartment in this 421-a building in 2010 at a time when his father was a managing member of the landlord entity. Tenant therefore paid no rent until 2014 when his father left the landlord entity and he began paying $1,800 per month. Tenant had never received a lease.

Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that tenant must already have a vacancy lease. But it was landlord's duty to maintain any such record, and it had no copy of any lease. A rent roll submitted to landlord's mortgage bank wasn't a adequate substitute for a lease to establish the apartment's initial rent. And no initial apartment registration for 2010 was filed until 2017. So there was nothing to establish a legal rent of $3,300 per month. 

Masada Metropolitan, LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. IR210015RO (10/21/20) [3-pg. doc.]