Rent Freeze Revoked

(Decision submitted by Daniel S. LoPresti of the Manhattan law firm of Shaw & Binder, attorneys for the landlord.) Three tenants in a garden apartment complex complained of a rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenants based on landlord's failure to file initial rent registration (RR-1) forms. The DRA froze tenants' rents. Landlord appealed. The apartments had been vacant from prior to April 1984 until after April 1, 1985, during which time landlord made building-wide and apartment improvements. Landlord filed 1986 annual rent registration forms after tenants moved in. Landlord also charged tenants rents that were less than the legal rents it could have charged based on the improvements. The DHCR ruled for landlord and revoked the overcharge findings. Tenants weren't harmed by landlord's failure to file RR-1's. Landlord wasn't required to file RR-1's while the apartments were vacant and tenants' complaints were treated as challenges to the initial registered rents. Landlord satisfied DHCR's filing requirements by late filing of the RR-1's, and rents wouldn't be frozen under the unique circumstances of this case.

Mid Queens L.P.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Dckt. No. LC110001RO (9/12/97) [3-page document]