Tenant Who Was Previously Registered Is Rent Stabilized

Tenant asked the DHCR to determine whether he was rent stabilized and what the legal apartment rent was. Tenant moved into the apartment in 2002 without a lease and paid $375 per month. New landlord increased tenant's rent to $500 per month without a lease and later gave tenant a one-year lease starting April 1, 2012, at $700 per month. The DRA ruled for tenant, finding that the apartment was rent stabilized and that tenant's legal regulated rent was $500 per month.

Landlord appealed and lost. The apartment was registered in 2005 at a monthly rent of $500, and this was the base date rent. Landlord later registered the apartment at $1,300 in 2006; $1,300 in 2007; $1,375 in 2008; $1,400 in 2009; and $1,400 in 2010. Registration records for 2011 and 2012 listed no rent. Landlord filed the registration records for the years 2006 through 2010 in 2012. The registration records were unreliable when weighed against tenant's claim and in light of landlord's failure to submit a rent history going back four years. Landlord is required to keep rent history documentation as substantive proof that rent registration information is correct. Landlord also claimed that tenant didn't move into the apartment until 2008, but rent registration records listed tenant for the years 2002 through 2005. In its PAR, landlord claimed that tenant was the building super, but the DHCR wouldn't consider this claim since it wasn't raised before the DRA.

JP & Associates Properties Corp.: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. AW410037RO (5/16/14) [3-pg. doc.]