Triple Damages Added to Overcharge Finding Based on 1990 Rent Reduction Order

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge. The DRA ruled for tenant and ordered landlord to refund over $68,000, including triple damages. Landlord appealed and lost. The overcharge finding was based on a rent reduction order issued in 1990 that was never enforced. The rent was never restored. So, based on the Court of Appeals 2010 decision in Cintron v. Calogero, the DHCR must honor rent reduction orders issued more than four years before tenant's complaint was filed. Landlord argued that the overcharge wasn't willful and that, since tenant's overcharge complaint was filed two years before the court decided the Cintron case, it was improper to bind landlord to the Cintron rule. Landlord also pointed out that the City Department of Welfare paid most of tenant's rent. The DHCR ruled that, since Cintron was decided while tenant's complaint was pending, the DRA was compelled to apply that ruling to tenant's case. The DRA also notified landlord of the Cintron ruling in 2012 when it sent landlord a final notice of triple damages. So, the DRA appropriately applied triple damages for willful overcharge to the overcharge finding. 

119 Realty Enterprises, LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. BN210038RO (11/29/17) [5-pg. doc.]