New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 9 - EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT › Subtitle S - Division of Housing and Community Renewal › Chapter VIII - Rent Stabilization Regulations › Subchapter B - Rent Stabilization Code › Part 2526 - Enforcement › Section 2526.1 - Determination of legal regulated rents; penalties; fines; assessment of costs; attorney's fees; rent credits; where the proceeding is commenced prior to June 14, 2019

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
(a)
(1) Any owner who is found by the DHCR, after
					 a reasonable opportunity to be heard, to have collected any rent or other
					 consideration in excess of the legal regulated rent shall be ordered to pay to
					 the tenant a penalty equal to three times the amount of such excess, except as
					 provided under subdivision (f) of this section. In no event shall such treble
					 damage penalty be assessed against an owner based solely upon the owner's
					 failure to file any timely or proper rent registration statement. If the owner
					 establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that the overcharge was not
					 willful, the DHCR shall establish the penalty as the amount of the overcharge
					 plus interest, which interest shall accrue from the date of the first
					 overcharge on or after the base date, at the rate of interest payable on a
					 judgment pursuant to section
					 5004 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules,
					 and the order shall direct such a payment to be made to the tenant.
(2) A complaint pursuant to this section must
					 be filed with the DHCR within four years of the first overcharge alleged, and
					 no determination of an overcharge and no award or calculation of an award of
					 the amount of an overcharge may be based upon an overcharge having occurred
					 more than four years before the complaint is filed; additionally:
(i) a penalty of three times the overcharge
					 may not be based upon an overcharge having occurred more than two years before
					 the complaint is filed or upon an overcharge which occurred prior to April 1,
					 1984; and
(ii) subject to
					 subparagraphs (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii), (viii) and (ix) of this paragraph,
					 the rental history of the housing accommodation prior to the four-year period
					 preceding the filing of a complaint pursuant to this section, and section
					 2522.3 of this Title, shall not be
					 examined; and examination of a rent registration for any year commencing prior
					 to the base date, as defined in section
					 2520.6(f) of this
					 Title, whether filed before or after such base date shall be
					 precluded;
(iii) except in the case
					 of decontrol pursuant to section
					 2520.11(r) or (s)
					 of this Title, nothing contained in this section shall limit a determination as
					 to whether a housing accommodation is subject to the RSL and this code, nor
					 shall there be a limit on the continuing eligibility of an owner to collect
					 rent increases pursuant to section
					 2522.4 of this Title, which may
					 have been subject to deferred implementation, pursuant to section
					 2522.4(a)(8) of
					 this Title in order to protect tenants from excessive rent increases;
(iv) in a proceeding pursuant to this section
					 the rental history of the housing accommodation pre-dating the base date may be
					 examined for the limited purpose of determining whether a fraudulent scheme to
					 destabilize the housing accommodation or a rental practice proscribed under
					 section 2525.3(b), (c) or
					 (d) of this Title rendered unreliable the
					 rent on the base date;
(v) an order
					 issued pursuant to section
					 2523.4(a) of this
					 Title remaining in effect within four years of the filing of a complaint
					 pursuant to this section may be used to determine an overcharge or award an
					 overcharge or calculate an award of the amount of an overcharge;
(vi) for the purpose of determining if the
					 owner establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that the overcharge was
					 not willful, examination of the rental history of the housing accommodation
					 prior to the four-year period preceding the filing of a complaint pursuant to
					 this section shall not be precluded;
(vii) for the purpose of determining any
					 adjustment in the legal regulated rent pursuant to section
					 2522.8(a)(2)(ii)
					 of this Title, or any adjustment pursuant to a guideline promulgated by the New
					 York City Rent Guidelines Board that requires information regarding the length
					 of occupancy by a present or prior tenant or the rent of such tenants, review
					 of the rental history of the housing accommodation prior to the four-year
					 period preceding the filing of a complaint pursuant to this section shall not
					 be precluded;
(viii) for the
					 purposes of establishing the existence or terms and conditions of a
					 preferential rent under section
					 2521.2(c) of this
					 Title, review of the rental history of the housing accommodation prior to the
					 four-year period preceding the filing of a complaint pursuant to this section
					 shall not be precluded;
(ix) for
					 the purpose of establishing the legal regulated rent pursuant to section
					 2526.1(a)(3)(iii)
					 of this Title where the apartment was vacant or temporarily exempt on the base
					 date, review of the rental history of the housing accommodation prior to the
					 four-year period preceding the filing of a complaint pursuant to this section
					 shall not be precluded.
(3)
(i) The
					 legal regulated rent for purposes of determining an overcharge shall be deemed
					 to be the rent charged on the base date, plus in each case any subsequent
					 lawful increases and adjustments.
(ii) Where the rent charged on the base date
					 cannot be established, the rent shall be determined by the DHCR in accordance
					 with section
					 2522.6 of this Title.
(iii) Where a housing accommodation is vacant
					 or temporarily exempt from regulation pursuant to section
					 2520.11 of this Title on the base
					 date, the legal regulated rent shall be the prior legal regulated rent for the
					 housing accommodation, the appropriate increase under section
					 2522.8 of this Title, and if
					 vacated or temporarily exempt for more than one year, as further increased by
					 successive two year guideline increases that could have otherwise been offered
					 during the period of such vacancy or exemption and such other rental
					 adjustments that would have been allowed under this code.
(4) Complaints filed prior to April 1, 1984
					 shall be determined in accordance with the RSL and code provisions in effect on
					 March 31, 1984, except that an overcharge collected on or after April 1, 1984
					 may be subject to treble damages pursuant to this section.