Landlord's Request to Amend Prior Year's Rent Registration Denied

In December 2016, landlord asked the DHCR for permission to amend an apartment registration filed in 2015. Landlord claimed that the apartment was mistakenly registered as rent stabilized in 2015 when it should have been registered as permanently exempt due to high-rent vacancy decontrol. The prior legal rent was $1,568.98 and the rent in effect on April 1, 2015, was $2,550 under a vacancy lease that commenced on Oct. 1, 2014.

The DRA ruled against landlord, who appealed and lost. Landlord argued that the Rent Stabilization Association (RSA) filed landlord's rent registrations and that landlord filled out the incorrect box on RSA's 2015 rent registration worksheet. But landlord failed to submit sufficient justification to amend the registration in the manner requested. While landlord submitted a copy of current tenant's nonregulated lease, it didn't submit prior tenant's lease to prove the prior rent or show that a high-rent vacancy deregulation notice or an "exit" registration were served on the current tenant as required by the Rent Stabilization Code.

611 Flatbush Avenue Realty Corp.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. FM210026RO (5/11/17) [2-pg. doc.]