S 6464: Provides that the determination of legal regulated base date rent at the four-year lookback shall be determined by either the survey sampling method or the default method if there is fraud.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 6464 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE March 14, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. CLEARE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Housing, Construction and Community Development AN ACT to amend chapter 576 of the laws of 1974, constituting the emer- gency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, in relation to providing for the determination of legal regulated base date rent for certain purposes The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The opening paragraph of paragraph 1 of subdivision a of 2 section 12 of section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974, constituting 3 the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, as amended 4 by section 1 of part F chapter 36 of the laws of 2019, is amended to 5 read as follows: 6 Subject to the conditions and limitations of this paragraph, any owner 7 of housing accommodations in a city having a population of less than one 8 million or a town or village as to which an emergency has been declared 9 pursuant to section three, who, upon complaint of a tenant or of the 10 state division of housing and community renewal, is found by the state 11 division of housing and community renewal, after a reasonable opportu- 12 nity to be heard, to have collected an overcharge above the rent author- 13 ized for a housing accommodation subject to this act shall be liable to 14 the tenant for a penalty equal to three times the amount of such over- 15 charge. If the owner establishes by a preponderance of the evidence 16 that the overcharge was neither willful nor attributable to [his] negli- 17 gence, the state division of housing and community renewal shall estab- 18 lish the penalty as the amount of the overcharge plus interest at the 19 rate of interest payable on a judgment pursuant to section five thousand 20 four of the civil practice law and rules. After a complaint of rent 21 overcharge has been filed and served on an owner, the voluntary adjust- 22 ment of the rent and/or the voluntary tender of a refund of rent over- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD04191-01-5 
 S. 6464 2 1 charges shall not be considered by the division of housing and community 2 renewal or a court of competent jurisdiction as evidence that the over- 3 charge was not willful. (i) Except as to complaints filed pursuant to 4 clause (ii) of this paragraph, the legal regulated rent for purposes of 5 determining an overcharge, shall be deemed to be the rent indicated in 6 the most recent reliable annual registration statement for a rent stabi- 7 lized tenant filed and served upon the tenant six or more years prior to 8 the most recent registration statement, (or, if more recently filed, the 9 initial registration statement) plus in each case any subsequent lawful 10 increases and adjustments. The division of housing and community 11 renewal or a court of competent jurisdiction, in investigating 12 complaints of overcharge and in determining legal regulated rent, shall 13 consider all available rent history which is reasonably necessary to 14 make such determinations. If there is an overcharge, the legal regulated 15 base date rent at the four-year lookback shall be determined by either 16 the survey sampling method or the default method if there is fraud. (ii) 17 As to complaints filed within ninety days of the initial registration of 18 a housing accommodation, the legal regulated rent for purposes of deter- 19 mining an overcharge shall be deemed to be the rent charged on the date 20 six years prior to the date of the initial registration of the housing 21 accommodation (or, if the housing accommodation was subject to this act 22 for less than six years, the initial legal regulated rent) plus in each 23 case, any lawful increases and adjustments. Where the rent charged on 24 the date six years prior to the date of the initial registration of the 25 accommodation cannot be established, such rent shall be established by 26 the division. 27 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.