I moved into my RS apartment in 2005. LL gave me Preferential Rent. Rent is now increasing above the recommended RGB guidelines for second time (first time was last year). I understand that is his choice due to our initial lease being for what I think is just for the length of the lease and not our tenancy.
I ordered and received my rent history from DHCR back to 1984. There is missing data for some years. The legal rent when I moved into the apartment in 2005 is actually incorrectly calculated, but is still higher than my Pref Rent at the time.
Back in the 80s the apartment was Rent Controlled. The Rent Controlled tenant seemed to be here until 1991 (perhaps longer. hard to tell due to missing info between 1991 and 1995). The next tenant listed is in 1995. Again, there is missing registration information for the rent for several years. The rent for the 1995 tenant in the vacancy lease was a round number and almost $700 increase over the 1991 rent controlled tenant. Also the 1995 increase is listed from DHCR as being registered in 1993. That seems fishy. Also, from 1995 the reporting looks solid although the increases are a little off. Meaning sometimes the Legal Rent is higher than the calculations come out to be.
I know that in cases of fraud, the DHCR can look back more than 4 years. In my case, would they look back to the 90s with this fishy $700 rent increase? I can’t challenge my Pref Rent increase, but I’m wondering if I can challenge the legal rent itself from the 90s which of course would affect my legal rent today? Do I have any sort of case with this? Thank you!