Maximum Base Rent Never Set for Rent-Controlled Tenant
The tenant claimed that she was subject to rent control and that landlord overcharged her. She asked the DHCR (Division of Housing and Community Renewal) to set the MBR (Maximum Base Rent) for her apartment. The tenant claimed that she moved into one apartment in 1960 at a rent of $202 per month. In 1979, she moved to another apartment in the building at the landlord’s request.
The landlord gave her renewal leases and increased her rent despite a 1982 DHCR order finding that she was rent controlled. The landlord admitted that the tenant was rent controlled, and said that it rolled the tenant’s rent back to $202 in May 2007. The DRA ruled for the tenant. The landlord never filed for or received a computed MBR for the apartment. The DRO (District Rent Office) set the MBR at $202 per month effective July 1, 1979. Any rent collected above this amount for the period starting two years before the tenant had filed her complaint must be refunded with six percent interest.
Jackie Halpern Weinstein represented the landlord in the case on behalf of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C