Triple Damages Reduced After Correcting Improper Application of HSTPA

Rent-stabilized tenant complained of rent overcharge in 2016. The DRA ruled for tenant in January 2020, applying a six-year base date and triple damages. The DRA ordered landlord to refund $18,225.

Landlord appealed and won, in part. The DRA's application to the 2016 complaint of HSTPA overcharge provisions, including a six-year lookback period, was improper based on the April 2020 decision of New York's highest court in Regina Metro. v. DHCR. The overcharge calculation amendments of HSTPA can't be applied retroactively to overcharges that occurred prior to the June 14, 2019, enactment of HSTPA. In this case, the DRA's incorrect base date determination didn't change the overcharge result, but triple damages were improperly applied on the entire overcharge.

However, landlord's claim that triple damages shouldn't apply was rejected. While pre-HSTPA law provided that overcharges based solely on non-registration weren't subject to triple damages, there were additional reasons for the overcharge finding in this case. Landlord was charging more than the legal regulated rent regardless of the rent freeze. Rent underpayments didn't cancel out the entire overcharge, and landlord didn't give tenant any refund.

Still, the DRA improperly applied HSTPA to grant more triple damages than were permitted to the pre-HSTPA complaint. The total overcharge, with triple damages, was $15,163.

West 122 LLC: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. IO410006RO (8/26/20) [4-pg. doc.]