This is the first year since the passage of the Rent Act of 2011 that the high-rent deregulation process will incorporate new household income and monthly legal regulated rent thresholds. If you have a tenant who's paying a monthly rent of $2,500 or more for a rent-controlled or rent-...
The problem of mold recently got more dangerous for New York owners. Four years ago, a key appellate court decision in Manhattan blocked millions of dollars in legal claims for damages for the health effects of mold in buildings, saying that the scientific evidence that mold caused illness was...
If you have a vacant rent-stabilized apartment, you may be able to take advantage of a money-making opportunity. If you rent the apartment to a commercial or professional tenant who will use it solely for nonresidential purposes (for example, as a medical office), the apartment will no longer be...
This April marks the 44th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act's (FHA) passage—the landmark legislation signed into law on April 11, 1968, that prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, color, national origin, sex, and, as amended, disability...
Tenants sometimes obstruct fire exits, including fire escapes, with a variety of items. Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) inspectors and the fire department routinely find such things as flowerpots, mops, buckets, brooms, and bicycles on fire escapes. These items could...
In the March 2012 issue, we discussed how to overcome stall tactics used by tenants to delay rent restoration orders. Oftentimes, tenants will try to introduce new service complaints for defective conditions after the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) has issued a rent cut, at the...
On Jan. 20, the DHCR issued new fuel cost adjustment factors for rent-controlled apartments for the 2012 calendar year. The findings indicate that all types of heating oil (#2, #4, #6), steam, and coal increased in price during the 2011 calendar year, while prices decreased for buildings heated...
The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) recently updated its Web site with the necessary forms you have to fill out to start the process for increasing the rents of your rent-controlled apartments during the 2012-13 maximum base rent (MBR) cycle. Once you receive the orders of...
When you apply to restore the rent after getting hit with a rent cut for reduced services, tenants often try to delay or undermine your application. They'll do so by complaining of defective conditions that weren't listed in the original service reduction order. But you can defeat this...
Providing individual storage units to tenants is a popular amenity in the city. Extra storage space can also become an additional revenue stream by charging tenants for the use of the storage units. But renting storage units to tenants can also bring added hassles, such as the cost of building...
When you apply to the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) for major capital improvement (MCI) rent hikes, you want the DHCR to process your application as quickly as possible and grant your rent hike. The sooner it grants your rent hike, the sooner you can start collecting it.
When you hire an attorney to start a nonpayment case in housing court against a tenant, you'll want to get it resolved as quickly as possible. To make this happen, it's important to give your attorney all the information she needs right from the start. Otherwise you could face court...
