Management Basics

File 2015 Fuel Cost Adjustment Forms Online by April 1

February 20, 2015    

On Jan. 23, the DHCR issued new fuel cost adjustment factors for rent-controlled apartments for the 2015 calendar year. The prices are based on a study of home heating oil prices provided by the NYC Rent Guidelines Board oil survey, a NYS Energy Research and Development Authority report, rate...

Send Tenant 2015 DHCR Form if Rent Is $2,500 or More

February 20, 2015    

Rent-regulated apartments with a legal or maximum monthly rent that reach or exceed $2,500 as of May 1, 2015, may be petitioned for high-income rent deregulation this year. Current exceptions to luxury deregulation are buildings currently receiving J-51 or 421-a tax benefits and rent-controlled...

Important Dates for Challenging NYC Property Taxes

January 28, 2015    

Every Jan. 15, the NYC Department of Finance (DOF) sends to each owner a tentative assessment for the next fiscal year (2016, in the current case) conveying the market value of the lot, including improvements, the actual assessed value of the lot, and, most important, the value upon which the...

Buildings Burning No. 6 Oil Must Convert by June 2015

November 21, 2014    

Local Law 43 and other state legislation regulating heating oils (No. 4 and No. 6) in New York City were put in place to address the public health hazard presented by these fuels. The rules affecting types of oil used in boilers were passed in April 2011 as part of an update to Mayor Bloomberg...

DHCR Increases A/C Rent Surcharge for 2014-15

October 24, 2014    

The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) recently announced an increase in this year’s air-conditioner rent surcharge for owners who pay for electricity. It set the monthly surcharge at $36.63, up from $27.89 last year. This year’s 31 percent increase reflects an 8.5...

Q&A on Rent-Regulated Garage Spaces

September 22, 2014    

If you own or manage a rent-regulated building with garage spaces that are also covered under rent control or rent stabilization, you must be careful when you rent those garage spaces to tenants. You can’t increase the rents of those garage spaces by more than the allowable rent control...

Consider Liability Issues When Installing Security Cameras

June 24, 2014    

On June 11, Mayor de Blasio announced the start of a long-overdue security camera installation in six public housing developments around the city. Previously, de Blasio had blamed the city for the lack of security cameras in housing project buildings, calling the delay “unacceptable...

File High-Income Rent Deregulation Form by June 30

May 27, 2014    

If you have a tenant who’s paying a monthly rent of $2,500 or more for a rent-controlled or rent-stabilized apartment, it might be time to send out the second of two Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) forms that may eventually lead to deregulation of the apartment. If you...

What to Do if Tenant Refuses Access for Window-Guard Installation

May 9, 2014    

You face a big problem if you know that a child under the age of 11 lives in an apartment but the tenant won’t let you in to install window guards. Section 131.15(a) of the city’s Health Code requires you to install window guards on each window of an apartment occupied by a child...

Realty Advisory Board and Local 32BJ Reach New Labor Agreement

April 24, 2014    

Averting a possible strike, SEIU 32BJ, the union representing residential building service workers in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, recently reached a labor agreement with the Realty Advisory Board, an association that negotiates collective bargaining agreements on behalf of...

DHCR Revises Monthly Surcharges for Tenant-Installed Appliances

March 21, 2014    

The DHCR recently issued Supplement No. 2 to Operational Bulletin 2005-1, which sets the monthly surcharges you can collect from rent-controlled and rent-stabilized tenants who buy and install their own portable or permanent washing machines, dryers, or dishwashers. The last time this...

How to Amend Annual Registrations

March 21, 2014    

Rent-stabilized apartments must be registered annually. Annual registrations are accepted starting April 1 of the registration year and must be submitted no later than July 31 of the registration year. If an error is made on the annual rent registration or if any pertinent information changes,...