Lease Records Didn't Document That Tenant Paid Preferential Rent

Tenant complained to the DHCR of rent overcharge in 2018. The DRA ruled for tenant, finding a total overcharge with interest and triple damages of $38,849. And, out of that total, $7,028 was owed to the ERAP program.

Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that the DRA made incorrect calculations because tenant paid a preferential rent that was less than the legal regulated rent. The DHCR disagreed. Given the inconsistencies between tenant's vacancy lease and the vacancy lease rider, the inconsistencies in various copies of the renewal leases, other irregularities in the leases, the fact that the renewal lease riders all were unsigned, and that there were gaps in time when there were no leases between some of the lease periods, there could be no finding that landlord was charging a preferential rent or had legitimately preserved any higher legal rent. The rent charged and paid on the base date was the legal base-date rent.

Mirav Realty, LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. NP210001RK (4/17/25)[5-pg. document]