*57Tenant then moved, insofar as is relevant to this appeal, for leave to renew her prior motion and, upon renewal, to vacate the final judgment; to vacate the two so-ordered stipulations; for leave to file an amended answer which included an affirmative defense and counterclaim alleging that landlord had been seeking to collect a rent overcharge; and for summary judgment dismissing the petition based upon tenant’s rent-overcharge claims. In support of her motion, tenant demonstrated that the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) had issued a rent reduction order on March 14, 1996, which had frozen the rent for the subject apartment at $658.13 based upon landlord’s failure to provide services, and that no restoration order had ever been issued by DHCR. Tenant argued, therefore, that the monthly rent of $1,272 sought by landlord in this proceeding was unlawful.
Landlord appeals from so much of an order of the Civil Court dated May 22, 2013 as vacated the stipulations and the final judgment entered pursuant thereto, granted tenant leave to file an amended answer and deemed the answer attached to tenant’s motion to have been served and filed, and dismissed the petition based upon the affirmative defense that the monthly rent upon which this proceeding was based was unlawful. Landlord argues on appeal that it had restored the services at issue in the rent reduction order and, therefore, that no restoration order was necessary in order to restore the rent, and that, in any event, vacancy increases are permitted even when a rent reduction order is in place.