Tenant's Son Has Pass-on Rights to Apartment

Rent-controlled tenant's son complained of a rent overcharge. He said that he was paying landlord $637 per month until landlord started to refuse his payments and sued to evict him in housing court. The DRA voided a landlord's report of decontrol filed in 1986 and found that tenant's son had lived with rent-controlled tenant until she moved out. The DRA found that the son was entitled to remain in the apartment and set his MCR at $514 per month. Landlord appealed. He didn't dispute that the son was now the tenant. But landlord claimed that the rent calculation was incorrect. He said that tenant's mother had agreed to a rent increase for apartment improvements in 1998. The DHCR ruled for landlord. The DHCR's records showed that in November 1998, landlord filed the required forms with the DHCR documenting kitchen improvements costing $1,100. At that time, landlord also submitted tenant's written consent to a 1/40th rent increase of $27.50 per month. So tenant's legal rent was now $546 per month.

Anton: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. WD120024RO (5/28/08) [6-pg. doc.]