Tenant Can't Challenge 1973 Decontrol Report

Tenant complained of a rent overcharge. She said that landlord treated her as rent stabilized but that she was in fact rent controlled. Tenant said she got pass-on rights from prior rent-controlled tenants, who were her parents. Tenant claimed that they had moved into the apartment in 1967. The DRA ruled against tenant, finding that she was rent stabilized. Tenant appealed and lost. Tenant had submitted no proof of pass-on rights to the DRA. And even if the DHCR accepted the late documentation submitted with tenant's PAR, tenant's claim was untimely. Prior landlord had filed a decontrol report with the rent agency in 1973. Tenant claimed that this filing was fraudulent. But tenant's parents never objected to the 1973 decontrol report. They remained in the apartment for many years after 1973, until tenant's father died, in 1998, and her mother died, in 2000. The apartment also had been registered as rent stabilized since 1984, yet tenant waited 17 years to complain.

Chin: DHCR Adm. Rev. Dckt. No. TC420008RP (2/9/06) [4-pg. doc.]