Tenant's Second Overcharge Complaint Was an Improper Attempt to Retry Prior Claim

(Decision submitted by Manhattan attorney Eileen O'Toole, the Law Office of Eileen O'Toole, who represented the landlord.)

An unregulated tenant filed a rent overcharge complaint with the DHCR in August 2019. The DRA ruled against tenant in 2024, finding that the apartment had been properly deregulated in 2013 when the rent level reached $2,700 per month. This was before tenant moved in. Therefore, the DRA found no rent overcharge. Tenant filed no petition for administrative review (PAR) of the DRA's decision. Instead, tenant filed a second rent overcharge complaint more than 35 days after the DRA denied tenant's first complaint. The DRA ruled against tenant a second time. As a result of its prior ruling, the DRA noted that the apartment was deregulated and the DHCR had no jurisdiction to decide tenant's new complaint.

Tenant appealed and lost. He claimed that his first complaint was based on rent overcharge but the second complaint was based on illegal deregulation. Landlord answered tenant's PAR and pointed out that tenant raised the same issues in his first overcharge complaint. Landlord argued that tenant was improperly seeking to collaterally attack a final administrative determination that the unit was deregulated. The DHCR agreed. The issue of rent overcharge, and ultimately, the apartment's rent-regulated status, both were addressed during the first overcharge proceeding, which was decided in June 2024. 

Stanojlovic: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. MV110013RT (3/4/25)[2-pg. document]