How to Complete and File DHCR Form RA-89: Rent Overcharge Complaint

DHCR Form RA-89 is the complaint a rent-stabilized tenant in New York files with the Division of Housing and Community Renewal to challenge rent charged above the legal regulated amount. There is no filing fee. DHCR recommends submitting through its Rent Connect portal, but you can still mail a paper form to the Office of Rent Administration in Jamaica, Queens, and you can file even after you have moved out.¹

Who Can File

You are eligible if you live, or lived, in a rent-stabilized apartment and believe your landlord collected rent above the legal limit. Rent stabilization generally covers buildings with six or more units built before January 1, 1974, plus newer buildings receiving 421-a or J-51 tax benefits for the duration of those benefits.¹

You do not need to be the prime leaseholder. Subtenants, roommates, and hotel or SRO tenants can file, and the form asks you to identify which category applies. Tenants who have already moved out can still file as long as the alleged overcharge happened during their occupancy.

Rent-controlled tenants use a different form, RA-89C, submitted through the same Rent Connect portal.²

Get Your Apartment’s Rent Registration History First

Before you touch RA-89, request the DHCR registration history for your apartment. This printout shows what the landlord reported to the agency each year and is the most reliable way to spot missing registrations or unexplained jumps in the legal rent.

Request it by emailing Form REC-1 to ORArecords@hcr.ny.gov, or mail the form to the Records Access Unit at 92-31 Union Hall Street, 6th Floor, Jamaica, NY 11433. Attach proof of identity and occupancy; a copy of your lease or a rent receipt works.³

Compare each registered amount to what you actually paid. A registered rent lower than the amount on your lease, or a year with no registration at all, is the kind of discrepancy you want to raise in your complaint.

Completing the Form

RA-89 has 19 numbered sections. Most collect basic identifying information. A few need attention.

Sections 1 through 5 ask for your name, current mailing address (which can differ from the apartment), and phone numbers. If you have moved, put your new address here and the apartment address in Section 4.
Section 6 asks whether you are a prime tenant, subtenant, hotel or SRO tenant, or roommate. It also asks whether you receive SCRIE, DRIE, or Section 8, because those subsidies affect the legal rent calculation.
Section 8 covers your move-in: the date, whether you had a written lease, its start and end dates, and the initial monthly rent.
Section 9 is the rent you pay now.
Section 11 asks for the current owner or managing agent. If you are unsure who that is, check the building’s registration on DHCR’s website or your most recent lease.
Section 13 is where you check the type of overcharge: major capital improvement increases, individual apartment improvements, missing registrations, illegal fees or surcharges, parking charges, and security deposit overcharges. Check every box that applies, and use the “Other” line if your situation does not fit.
Section 14 is the narrative. Be specific about what the landlord did and when. “Landlord added a $200 IAI increase in March 2022 with no documentation” is far more useful than “rent is too high.”
Section 15 covers security deposits. Under the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, deposits are capped at one month’s rent. Enter what you paid.
Section 16 asks whether you have raised the same issue in court. If so, attach any decision.
Section 17 asks for every lease you signed during the last six years (or since move-in, if shorter), starting with your current one. Attach copies.
Section 18 asks for the rent you actually paid each month for the same period. Attach canceled checks, money order receipts, or bank statements.

Sign and date the form. An unsigned complaint will not be processed.¹

Documents to Attach

The stronger your paper trail, the faster your case moves. Gather:

Every lease and renewal you signed during the six-year look-back period. If you never received a written lease, note that; it is itself a potential violation.
Proof of payment: canceled checks, bank statements, money order receipts, or Venmo and Zelle records covering the same period.
The DHCR registration history printout, with any discrepancies flagged.
The Rent Stabilization rider, which landlords must attach to each lease showing the prior rent and the reason for any increase. Its absence supports your claim.
Correspondence with the landlord where you questioned rent amounts or the landlord tried to justify an increase.

You do not need every document to file. A missing lease from five years ago will not sink the complaint, because DHCR has its own registration records. But the more you provide up front, the less back-and-forth you will face later.

How to Submit

DHCR recommends filing through Rent Connect at rent.hcr.ny.gov. The online system asks the same questions as the paper form, lets you upload documents as PDFs or images, and gives you an immediate confirmation.² You will need an HCR Portal account.

To file on paper, download the fillable PDF from hcr.ny.gov and mail it with your attachments to:

DHCR — Office of Rent Administration
Gertz Plaza
92-31 Union Hall Street
Jamaica, NY 11433⁴

Use certified mail with return receipt. The postmark counts as your filing date, which matters for the six-year look-back. Borough Rent Offices do not accept paper submissions to pending case files, so everything goes through the Jamaica address. There is no fee for either method.

How Far Back DHCR Can Look

The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 expanded the overcharge review window from four years to six. DHCR can order a refund of overcharges going back six years from the date you file. When determining whether the current legal rent is correct, however, the agency can examine all available rent history back to the last reliable registration, potentially many more years, to trace how the rent reached its present level.⁵ Refunds are capped at six years, but the agency can unwind older improper increases to reset the legal rent going forward.

What Happens After You File

DHCR assigns a docket number and sends a Notice of Commencement of Proceeding to the landlord. The owner has roughly 20 days to submit a response with evidence justifying the rent.⁶ You will receive a copy and may be asked to reply.

The Rent Administrator then reviews both sides, comparing your lease and payment records to the agency’s registration database. The reviewer checks whether each increase matched the Rent Guidelines Board percentages, whether claimed apartment improvements met legal requirements, and whether the landlord properly registered the rent each year.

Plan on waiting. Overcharge cases routinely take one to three years from filing to final order. You can check status online using your docket number.

Penalties and Refunds

The default penalty is treble damages: three times the amount collected above the legal rent. The burden falls on the owner to prove the overcharge was not willful. If the owner establishes that by a preponderance of the evidence, DHCR reduces the award to the excess rent plus 9 percent annual interest, the rate set by CPLR § 5004.⁷

The final order also resets the legal regulated rent going forward. If you have been paying $2,400 but the legal rent should be $1,900, future rent drops to $1,900 plus any lawful Rent Guidelines Board increases from that base. The order directs the owner to refund or credit the overcharge.

A Common Trigger: Inflated Apartment Improvements

One frequent source of overcharges is landlords inflating renovation costs to justify larger rent increases. Under the two-tier Individual Apartment Improvement system that took effect October 17, 2024, recoverable costs are capped at $30,000 for most apartments (Tier 1) and $50,000 for apartments either vacant for three consecutive registration years or continuously occupied for at least 25 years before the work (Tier 2).⁸ If your landlord charged an IAI increase built on costs above these caps, that excess belongs in Section 13 under “Individual Apartment Improvements.”

If You Disagree With the Decision

Either side can challenge the Rent Administrator’s order by filing a Petition for Administrative Review on Form RAR-2. The deadline is 35 days from the date the order was issued, not the date you received it, and DHCR does not grant extensions. The PAR goes to the same Gertz Plaza address.⁹

If the PAR determination goes against you, the next step is an Article 78 proceeding in New York State Supreme Court, filed within four months of the date the PAR becomes final and binding.¹⁰ That is a court case rather than another agency review, so most tenants at this stage retain an attorney.

Retaliation Protection While Your Case Is Pending

Under Real Property Law § 223-b, if a landlord serves an eviction notice, refuses to renew your lease, or substantially alters your tenancy within one year after you file a good-faith complaint with a government agency, a court presumes the action is retaliatory. The landlord then has to prove a legitimate, non-retaliatory reason. The statute covers eviction proceedings, rent increases beyond what the Rent Guidelines Board allows, and reductions in services like heat or hot water.¹¹

Document every interaction if you suspect retaliation. Dated letters, emails, and photographs of conditions help establish the timeline a court needs to apply the presumption.

Taxes on an Award

A refund that simply returns rent you should not have paid is generally not taxable, because it restores your own money. Treble damages are different. The punitive portion, the amount above the actual overcharge, is treated as taxable income by the IRS because it goes beyond making you whole.¹² If you receive a large award, set aside a portion for federal and state income taxes or talk to a tax professional before spending it.

1
New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Tenant’s Complaint of Rent and/or Other Specific Overcharges in a Rent Stabilized Apartment
2
New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Tenant/Owner Forms
3
New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Records Access
4
New York State Homes and Community Renewal. HCR Office of Rent Administration New Procedural Guidance for Office Visits
5
New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Rent Stabilization and Rent Control Fact Sheet
6
New York State Courts. 321-323-325 W. 42nd St. LLC v McMahan, 2025 NY Slip Op 50284(U)
7
Cornell Law Institute. New York Comp. Codes R. and Regs. Tit. 9 2526.1 – Determination of Legal Regulated Rents
8
New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Operational Bulletin 2024-2
9
New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Appealing an Order
10
Long Island Land Use and Zoning. NY CPLR 217 – Proceeding Against Body or Officer
11
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law RPP 223-b
12
Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments