Landlord keeps hiking my rent, while waiting for DHCR review

[Bouba2020]

Hello,
I submitted a rent overcharge complaint over 3 years ago.
The landlord keeps increasing my rent like crazy for the past 2 years, trying to force me out of the apartment.
Right now my rent is 25% higher than when I moved in.
Question is... Do I keep paying higher rent and sign the lease renewal. Or do I stop paying rent altogether forcing the landlord to take me to court and this way I may be able to expedite the process with DHCR. My case is still in "Initial Processing" stage.
Any advice would be highly appreciated, please help.

[TenantNet]

Please answer ALL these questions:

I'm assuming you have an original RS lease. Are you requesting for periodic Rent Histories from DHCR?

Does the LL send a yearly registration? Do they offer a RS renewal lease on the official RTP-8 form?

How do they justify the increases? Do they claim you are not RS and have an explanation?

Are you paying the extra rent? Tell us what kind of renewal they offered? For RS tenants, the only lease they can legally offer is the RTP-8 form. Be aware though that the LL might drag you into court, but from what you initially say, you might have a case. That's why we ask these questions.

Being in court will not expedite any case with DHCR, but you can use the DHCR case to ask that the court case be put on hold, i.e., you should get to "choose your forum."

Did the LL reply to your overcharge complaint? Did DHCR send you a copy of his reply? If the LL replied, did you answer back?

Are you checking the status of the complaint every so often to see if it's in initial processing or something else?

[Bouba2020]

Please answer ALL these questions:

I'm assuming you have an original RS lease. Are you requesting for periodic Rent Histories from DHCR?

- Bouba2020 - I don't have a RS lease, but based on the Rent History I can safely assume it is supposed to be rent stabilized.

Does the LL send a yearly registration? Do they offer a RS renewal lease on the official RTP-8 form?

- No, because landlord considers it non stabilized

How do they justify the increases? Do they claim you are not RS and have an explanation?

- non RS

Are you paying the extra rent? Tell us what kind of renewal they offered? For RS tenants, the only lease they can legally offer is the RTP-8 form. Be aware though that the LL might drag you into court, but from what you initially say, you might have a case. That's why we ask these questions.

- Yep, I have been paying the rent without any delay for all these years. But he keeps raising higher than the other apts in my building making me feel he wants me to give up and move out.

Being in court will not expedite any case with DHCR, but you can use the DHCR case to ask that the court case be put on hold, i.e., you should get to "choose your forum."

- When I call DHCR they tell me the only way to expedite my case is if the case gets severe enough that i face eviction or similar.

Did the LL reply to your overcharge complaint? Did DHCR send you a copy of his reply? If the LL replied, did you answer back? -

Yes, The landlord's lawyer replied. He provided what I think was a fake lease, that spiked the rent from 894 to 2000 ( destabilization treshold) while mentioning the tenant would keep paying " PREFERENTIAL RENT" - 894. He claims there were 2 units combined but I have the info from the DOB confirming it is false.

Are you checking the status of the complaint every so often to see if it's in initial processing or something else?

- Yep, the status keep saying "initial processing" for over 3 years now. Each time I call they say no one even touched my case since, but I can't keep up with the increases of rent my landlord does every year.

[TenantNet]

Please do not use interlinear comments - they are difficult to read. Better use a separate post or quote the original followed by answers. This will be impossible on any back and forth, so please adjust.

And stick to my my questions for now, don't toss in new stuff.

[Bouba2020]

Done!

[TenantNet]

Thanks, that looks better. I'll try to get to it ASAP.

[TenantNet]

So you don't have a RS lease; that's a problem. FYI, there are initial RS leases when you move in and renewals that must be on DHCR for RTP-8. It also can depend on when you moved in. What year? After June 2019?

Also FYI, RS status is one thing; an overcharge and the rent level, that's something else. You may be correct in your assumption, but that isn't a guarantee and often not without litigation, either DHCR or the courts.

You said you have the rent history, when did that stop? Or when is the last registration recorded.

Did the LL ever provide an explanation why they consider it non-RS?

Paying the rent can get more complicated. You know if you stop or reduce it, they will likely take you to court. Search this forum for "earmarks" or "earmarking." Pay with paper checks or M.O. and earmark each check from now until you die. It means they can't take your payments and apply it to some month from the past. In some cases it can mean they can't seek rent past the 6 yr statute of limitations.

There is also the 4 year SOL on overcharges. See the Regina case (Google it).

BTW, the LL can just refuse to renew your lease to get you out, no matter what the rent is. Your defense would be that you're RS. Get an idea if this is a big LL and uses known LL lawyers.

DHCR may be correct on expediting, but that's not automatic. There is case law that choosing one forum (i.e., DHCR) might allow a court to put a court case on hold. If they take you to court, make sure the answer says there's an active case being processed at DHCR.

The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (“HSTPA”) provides
that tenants have the choice of forum in such matters. Here, Respondent chose
the DHCR in which to lodge a complaint that has identical issues raised in this
proceeding.

Under the HSTPA, the law now explicitly provides that it is the tenant, not the
landlord, who should choose whether an apartment has been deregulated or
not should be determined before the DHCR or the court: “the courts and
[DHCR] shall have concurrent jurisdiction, subject to the tenant's choice of
forum.” See the HSTPA, ch. 36 at Part F §1, codified at RSL § 26-516(a),
N.Y. Admin Code §26-516(a).

The HSTPA explicitly provides, in part, that:
Unless a tenant shall have filed a complaint of overcharge with the [DHCR]
which complaint has not been withdrawn, nothing contained in [the ETPA]
shall be deemed to prevent a tenant or tenants, claiming to have overcharged,
from commencing an action or interposing a counterclaim in a court of
competent jurisdiction for damages equal to the overcharge and the penalty
provided for ...The courts and the [DHCR] shall have concurrent jurisdiction
subject to the tenant's choice of forum.

Chapter 36, Law of 2019, §3(b), amending the ETPA and other laws on
June 14, 2019.

This section of the HSTPA was upheld by the Court of Appeals in Collazo v.
Netherland Prop. Assets LLC, 2020 NY Slip Op 02128, 35 N.Y.3d 987 (April
2, 2020).

The above quote is from papers we have access to, but a court has not ruled on these points.

The rules on Preferential Rent changed in 2019. The destabilization threshold changed over the years - I think it was around $2700 in 2019. So it depends on when things occurred.

Get the Cert. of Occupancy for the building showing how many units were on each floor. See DOB website BIS at https://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bsqpm01.jsp (that's the old site)

Also the icards from HPD, https://hpdonline.nyc.gov/hpdonline/

If you can, get affidavits from long-time tenants. And from DOB see if you can get the original building plans (you may need to go downtown or the help of an architect or expediter.

That's not easy, but years ago we got a microfiche of our building (from 1916) and won a case with that information.

If you can find the previous tenant and if they are game maybe they will sign an affidavit.

Initial Processing, well that's DHCR.