Tenant's Leases Didn't Document Preferential Rent

Tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRO ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund $19,115, including triple damages. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord claimed that when tenant moved into the apartment in 2004, he received a vacancy lease with a preferential rent, and that tenant continued to pay a preferential rent upon lease renewal. But the vacancy lease and subsequent preliminary letters offered by landlord to tenant didn’t reflect both a legal and a preferential rent. Under Rent Stabilization Code Section 2521.2(b), in order to preserve the right to charge a higher legal regulated rent when a tenant has been paying a preferential rent, the legal regulated rent must be set forth in the vacancy lease or renewal lease under which a preferential rent is charged. Tenant’s leases listed only one rent amount, which landlord claimed was preferential. But this wasn’t sufficiently documented.

Casal: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. DS210042RO (3/15/16) [4-pg. doc.]