No Overcharge Where Apartment Deregulated on Base Date

Tenant complained of a rent overcharge. Landlord claimed that tenant wasn't rent stabilized. On the 2004 base date, four years before tenant filed his complaint, the rent was $1,800 per month. Under tenant's first lease starting on March 15, 2006, the rent was $2,300. The DRA ruled against tenant. Since the legal rent when tenant moved in was over $2,100, the apartment was deregulated and landlord was free to charge market rent. Tenant appealed and lost. Tenant claimed that landlord didn't register the base date rent until 2008 and that the DHCR should look beyond the four-year base date for possible fraud. But tenant showed no proof that the base date rent wasn't bona fide. The fact that landlord filed late rent registrations didn't affect the question of a rent overcharge.

Butcher: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. WL410053RT (10/30/09) [2-pg. doc.]