When the city’s Department of Buildings (DOB) hits you with a violation, it must first deliver a violation notice to you. There are some strict rules the DOB must follow in this delivery, which is legally known as “service” of the notice. Sometimes, though, the DOB makes...
When a rent-stabilized tenant complains to the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) about a rent overcharge, owners often submit contractors’ invoices as proof of the cost of the equipment installed in or other improvements made to the tenant’s apartment. Invoices can...
The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) recently announced a cut in this year’s air-conditioner rent surcharge for owners who pay for electricity. It set the monthly surcharge at $28.94, down from $36.63 last year. This year’s decrease reflects the 4.69 percent decrease...
Suppose you’ve agreed to the pass-on of a rent-stabilized apartment to a tenant’s family member after the tenant has died or moved out. For example, you may choose not to fight the pass-on in court because the family member has a strong case that he or she is entitled to pass-on...
You may have a tenant holding on to two rent-regulated apartments in your building, but he lives in only one of them. For example, a tenant may once have rented two apartments to meet the needs of a large family. But now the tenant’s children are grown and gone, and the tenant no longer...
You may feel like celebrating after you win a money judgment for unpaid rent from an ex-tenant in court. But sometimes it can be tough to get the ex-tenant to pay you the amount of the judgment. Fortunately, if you know where the ex-tenant works, there’s a way you can get the money you...
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOH) recently announced that a cooling tower in a South Bronx hotel was the source of a deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that began on July 10. Laboratory tests determined that the Legionella strain found in the hotel’s...
For rent-stabilized and rent-controlled apartments, a “family member” of the tenant may have the right to a rent-stabilized renewal lease or protection from eviction in an apartment under rent control when the tenant dies or permanently leaves the apartment.
If you sign a vacancy lease with a tenant between Oct. 1, 2015, and Sept. 30, 2016, the new order issued on June 29 by the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB)—RGBO #47—lets you collect the vacancy increases permitted under the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997 (RRRA).
On June 29, in a 7 to 2 vote, the city’s Rent Guidelines Board decided to freeze rents for rent-stabilized tenants with one-year leases. This had never been done before in the board’s 46-year history. With the rent freeze, Mayor de Blasio delivered on a campaign promise to freeze one...
On June 25, Governor Cuomo and leaders of the New York State Legislature agreed to strengthen the state’s rent regulations and to overhaul the 421-a tax abatement program. The legislative session had been originally scheduled to end on June 17, but negotiations continued into the following...
