The Article 78 proceeding is the tenant’s secret weapon against an arbitrary ruling of DHCR.  On a number of occasions, DHCR has re-drafted its own rules as a result of a tenant’s successful Article 78 litigation. 
 

OVERCHARGES 

If the landlord is overcharging a tenant, the tenant must file an overcharge complaint with DHCR within four years from when the overcharge began.  DHCR is usually pretty fair on the overcharge complaints, but they take FOREVER to decide your case.  If you have been overcharged, you are entitled to a refund of the rent that was illegally taken from you.  In most cases, you are entitled to treble damages (three times the refund) against the landlord.  Although DHCR may disagree, you are entitled under New York law to interest from the date of the overcharge determination. 

Owner Fails to Provide Evidence of Inadvertent Mathematical Error When it Simply Makes a Bare Assertion That an Error Was Made. 

Requests for Consolidation 
 

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RENT STABILIZATION ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK CITY, INC., ET AL., APPELLANTS,AND SMALL PROPERTY OWNERS OF NEW YORK, INTERVENOR-APPELLANT, v.  RICHARD L. HIGGINS, &C., ESPONDENT, AND ROBERT WELLS, ET AL.,INTERVENORS- RESPONDENTS.  83 N.Y.2d 156, 630 N.E.2d 626, 608 N.Y.S.2d 930 (1993).  December 21, 1993   Essentially two challenges are mounted by appellant-property owners to regulations promulgated by respondent Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) enlarging the class of "family members" entitled to succeed to a rent-regulated apartment on the death or departure of the tenant of record. As did the Appellate Division, we conclude first that the regulations are within the agency's rulemaking authority, and second that no unconstitutional "taking" was effected.