What Documents to Include with Leases to Avoid Penalties

If you’re like most owners, you may be confused about what documents you’re legally required to include with the vacancy and renewal leases you offer to tenants. Both the city and federal governments have passed laws requiring you to include various documents with leases in certain situations. If you don’t include these documents, you run the risk of getting hit with costly penalties.

To help you avoid penalties and comply with all the laws, we’ve provided a seven-point checklist of documents you legally must include with vacancy and renewal leases. We’ll tell you who must include the documents, exactly what’s required, the penalty for not including them, and where you can get them.

[] Tenant’s Rights Rider

Who’s affected? Owners of rent-stabilized apartments must give this rider to rent-stabilized tenants.

What’s required? Section 2522.5(c) of the Rent Stabilization Code (RSC) says that all leases (vacancy and renewal) must contain a DHCR rider setting forth the tenant’s rights under the rent-stabilization system. In July 2014, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) revised the rider to include provisions that are required by the Rent Code Amendments of 2014, which are embodied in the RSC and the Tenant Protection Regulations (TPR).

An owner must include a copy of a New York City Lease Rider or an ETPA Standard Lease Addenda with a tenant’s vacancy lease and all renewal leases, personally or by mail, and they must contain the following elements:

• The identity of the subject address and apartment.
• The signature of the tenant and owner, to be affixed at the offering and execution of the lease, respectively.
• Information on the rent paid by the previous tenant and a detailed summary of Individual Apartment Improvements (IAI) and related costs and rent increases as well as vacancy and longevity allowances which enable a tenant to understand how the new legal regulated rent for the apartment was calculated. This section also includes a notification to the tenant of his or her right to request from the owner detailed IAI supporting documentation (such as invoices, cancelled checks, etc.) at the time the lease is being offered or within 60 days after it is executed, by certified mail. The owner must provide such documentation within 30 days of that request by certified mail or in person with a signed acknowledgement of receipt.
• A description of rights and duties of owners and tenants under the Rent Stabilization Law, RSC, TPR, and other laws, including information on preferential rents, air conditioner surcharges, high-rent vacancy deregulation, and IAI notification requirements.

Penalty. A tenant who is not served with a copy of the rider when signing a vacancy or renewal lease may file form RA-90, “Tenant’s Complaint of Owner’s Failure to Renew Lease and/or Failure to Furnish a Copy of a Signed Lease.”

The failure to properly serve the rider/addenda or provide information as required by the rider/addenda may result in the complaint being treated as a specific overcharge complaint. The DHCR may issue an order directing a refund of any payment inappropriately made plus all penalties otherwise due in an overcharge proceeding.

Where to get rider. You can get the rider at www.nyshcr.org/Forms/rent/ralr1.pdf or www.nyshcr.org/Forms/Rent/ralr1-ETPA.pdf.

[] Window Guard Rider

Who’s affected? Owners of buildings with three or more apartments must give this rider to tenants.

What’s required? Department of Health (DOH) regulations require owners to include with all vacancy and renewal leases a DOH form rider. The form is titled “Window Guards Required: Lease Notice to Tenant” and says “Appendix A” in the upper right-hand corner. The latest version of this form is marked “WF013 (Rev. 11/02)” in the lower left-hand corner. The rider tells tenants that they must have window guards if a child age 10 or younger lives in the apartment.

Penalty. You can get hit with a civil penalty of up to $500 for each violation of the window guard law and regulations. Also, failure to comply with the law is a criminal misdemeanor. DOH will seek this penalty if there’s a fall from a window that doesn’t have a window guard. If convicted, you could face a $500 fine and up to six months in jail.

Where to get rider. You can download the rider at www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/win/win-wf013-appendixa.pdf.

[] HPD Lead Paint Notice

Who’s affected? Owners of buildings built before Jan. 1, 1960, that have three or more apartments.

What’s required? Local Law 1 of 2004 and Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) regulations require you to give an HPD lead paint notice when signing leases with new tenants or renewing leases with current tenants. The notice is called “Lease/Commencement of Occupancy Notice for Prevention of Lead-Based Paint Hazards—Inquiry Regarding Child” and asks whether a child under age 6 lives or will live in the apartment with the tenant.

Owners must give the notice to renewing occupants when they send those occupants a renewal lease offer, even if they know that no children under age 6 are living in the apartment.

Penalty. If you don’t give the notice, you can be hit with an HPD violation and fined up to $1,500. Owners can also be charged with a criminal misdemeanor. If this happens, they can be fined up to $500 and/or imprisoned for up to six months.

Where to get notice. You can download an English version at www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/downloads/pdf/lead-paint-lease-occu-comm-child-inq-En.pdf. For a Spanish version, go to www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/downloads/pdf/lead-paint-lease-occu-comm-child-inq-sp.pdf.

[] DOH Lead Paints Pamphlet

Who’s affected? Owners of buildings built before Jan. 1, 1960, that have three or more apartments.

What’s required? Local Law 1 of 2004 and HPD regulations require you to give a DOH lead paint pamphlet at the same time that you give the HPD lead paint notice. The pamphlet is titled “Protect Your Child from Lead Poisoning.” It explains lead-based paint hazards and describes the procedures that owners must follow to correct lead-based paint violations.

Penalty. If you don’t give the DOH pamphlet, you can be hit with an HPD violation and fined up to $1,500. Owners can also be charged with a criminal misdemeanor. If this happens, they can be fined up to $500 and/or imprisoned for up to six months.

Where to get pamphlet. You can download the DOH pamphlet at www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/public/dohmhnews6-03.pdf.

[] HUD/EPA Lead Paint Pamphlet

Who’s affected? Owners of buildings built before 1978 unless the building has been properly inspected and deemed lead-free by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or an EPA-authorized state environmental enforcement agency.

What’s required? The federal Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992, better known as Title X, and the federal rules implementing that law require owners to give tenants signing new leases a pamphlet developed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the EPA entitled “Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home.”

Although the city’s DOH publishes its own lead paint pamphlet, this pamphlet doesn’t meet the federal requirements and can’t be used instead of the federal pamphlet.

Penalty. You could get hit with civil fines of up to $10,000 for each violation as well as criminal fines up to $10,000 for each violation.

Where to get pamphlet. Call the National Lead Information Clearinghouse, 1-800-424-LEAD, or download the pamphlet from www2.epa.gov/lead/protect-your-family-lead-your-home-2.

[] HUD/EPA Disclosure Form

Who’s affected? Owners of buildings built before 1978 unless the building has been properly inspected and deemed lead-free by the EPA or an EPA-authorized state environmental enforcement agency.

What’s required? Title X also requires you to give a HUD/EPA disclosure form to tenants signing new leases. This form is titled “Disclosure of Information on Lead-Based Paint and Lead-Based Paint Hazards” and tells tenants what you know about lead in your building. If the lease that will be signed is in a language other than English, owners must give the tenant the form in the language of the lease.

Once an owner gives the disclosure form to a tenant, the owner doesn’t have to give the form to that person again unless the information disclosed on the form has changed, such as a new inspection finds lead paint.

Penalty. You could get hit with civil fines of up to $11,000 for each violation as well as criminal fines up to $11,000 for each violation. In addition, tenants who win lawsuits against owners for harm caused by lead paint can collect triple their actual damages if the owner has knowingly violated the rules.

Where to get disclosure form. Call the National Lead Information Clearinghouse, 1-800-424-LEAD, or download the form at http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/lesr_eng.pdf.

[] Bedbug Infestation History Disclosure Form

Who’s affected? All owners of residential buildings, regardless of size or number of apartments.

What’s required? New York City Administrative Code §27-2018.1, which the governor signed into law on Aug. 31, 2010, mandates that new tenants in New York City be given a one-year bedbug infestation history. Owners provide to each tenant signing a vacancy lease a notice setting forth the bedbug infestation history for the previous year for the apartment being leased and the building in which it is located.

Penalty. Owners who fail to give bedbug infestation notice forms to new tenants can be directed to do so by the DHCR if a tenant complains.

Where to get disclosure form. You can download the form at www.nyshcr.org/forms/rent/dbbn.pdf.