Rent overcharge for change in Room Count

[Snoring0276]

I'm a rent-stabilized tenant in an apartment building in Brooklyn. DHCR approved an MCI increase for facade work, but in doing so, adjusted the room count in my apartment from 5 rooms to 4. A previous MCI for roof work was approved several years ago with the higher room count. Can I file an overcharge complaint to adjust the amount approved for the previous MCI?

Thanks for your help.

[TenantNet]

Room counts (per building and per apartment) are part of the formula for determining MCI rent increases. In my experience, LLs often change the internal layouts in apartments - usually between tenants - and that can make a change in what a tenant gets charged for MCIs. For example, if an apartment is originally three rooms (living, bed and kitchen), I've seen LLs knock out the internal walls resulting in one large room (not counting closets of the bathrooms(s). That means, in reality, the three room apartment becomes one room. But DHCR issues MCI orders for 3 rooms. It might say so in the LLs application, in the Certificate of Occupancy for the building, or in historical documents.

Some tenants will challenge that, but I've never seen DHCR make a change. Apparently in your case, they have. You don't say what might have changed, if anything. I would find out why there's a difference. Did you see the LL's entire application? If not, then you should FOIL the entire folder. Go to the Borough office if you can and take photos with a cel phone (do not pay $0.25 per page).

Now, the way it works is that the number of rooms in a building or in an apartment are all divvied up from the total MCI cost. So if you have a total MCI cost for a building being $100,000, if a building has 200 rooms, then that's $200 per room, and a monthly charge would be 1/12th of that, or $16.67. And if you have 4 rooms, then the apartment increase would be $66.67.

But it's a tradeoff, if your room count becomes less, then someone else's room count would become more. No matter how you divvy it up, the total cost is a constant.

Also .. be aware that now LL's can only collect no more than 2% per year. So that means the total amount for each apartment is limited to 2% the first year, 4% the second and so on. See the 2019 HSTPA laws for that. The LL should readjust whatever has been collected.

As for filing for an overcharge for a higher counts, do your research, find out what happened. You can file a complaint, but in all honesty, DHCR does not have a great record in making corrections.