Tenant Can't Challenge 1999 Rent Increase

Tenant complained of rent overcharge and claimed that his apartment was improperly deregulated. The DRA ruled against tenant, who appealed and lost. Tenant filed his complaint in September 2014, claiming that a fraudulent rent increase in 1999 increased the monthly apartment rent from $854 to $1,925. But the DRA found that prior tenant moved out in August 2002 with a legal regulated rent of $2,042. J-51 benefits that landlord had received expired before that date. Therefore, the apartment was deregulated by the time tenant moved in on May 5, 2005, at a monthly rent of $1,975. Landlord filed an exit registration for the apartment in August 2002. The apartment therefore wasn't subject to rent stabilization after that date. Here, the base rent date was Sept. 11, 2010, and the apartment was deregulated at that time. Tenant didn't set forth sufficient proof of fraud to warrant investigation of pre-base date rental events. The fact that landlord increased the rent as it did in 1999, more than 15 years before tenant filed a complaint, didn't warrant a finding of fraud. 

Takeuchi: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. ES410014RT (8/16/18) [4-pg. doc.]