CTRC Fact Sheet Index
TenantNet note: These Fact Sheets were published by CTRC in the mid-1990's. Some information
will be out-of-date. As far as we know, there have been no updates to these fact sheets. While much of the information may
still be valid, the reader should exercise caution.
CTRC Fact Sheets -- reproduced with permission.
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The Community Training Resource Center (CTRC) is a city-wide not-
for-profit organization that champions the rights of modest and
low-income tenants and promotes the preservation, improvement,
and expansion of affordable housing. CTRC provides training and
technical assistance for neighborhood housing groups, community
based organizations, legislative staffs and social service
providers.
CTRC produces fact sheets on tenants' rights, develops and
publishes research reports, and provides a written guide to New
York City government processes. CTRC advocates on budget policies
that affect housing and related services in low-income
neighborhoods. CTRC has led the campaign for the improvement and
expansion of the city's Housing Maintenance Code inspection and
enforcement services.
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CTRC Fact Sheet #109
TENANT COMPLAINTS TO THE
DIVISION OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY RENEWAL
The DHCR is the state agency charged with administering the Rent
Control (RC) and Rent Stabilization Laws (RS). These laws direct
the DHCR to process and resolve various complaints by tenants
involving, but not limited to, legal regulated rents,
overcharges, leases and lease renewals, service reductions and
harassment. The DHCR also processes rent increase and eviction
applications by landlords.
Some complaints regarding rent stabilization or rent control may
be filed only with the DHCR; other complaints may be made to the
DHCR and local (municipal or county) agencies that have housing
enforcement responsibilities. Tenants should always consider
filing with multiple agencies as a more effective means to
achieve results.
The complaint forms described below are available to tenants at
DHCR district rent offices or may be ordered by telephone. The
"RS" or "RC" at the end of each section indicates whether rent
controlled or rent stabilized tenants or both may use the form.
Unregulated tenants do not come under DHCR jurisdiction, but are
afforded, other, important rights by various local and state
tenant protection laws; see fact sheets, Code Enforcement,
Fighting Eviction in Small Buildings and Statutory Rights of
Tenants.
RENT & LEASES
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TENANT'S COMPLAINT OF RENT OVERCHARGE AND/OR EXCESS SECURITY
DEPOSIT (FORM RA-89)
The purpose of this complaint is to determine if a tenant
has been overcharged for rent. This form may be filed by any
tenant who moves into a rent stabilized apartment after
April 1, 1984. The landlord will be required to produce rent
records proving that the current rent is legal. If the
records are not produced, the DHCR may order the rent to be
lowered.
Questions that require the tenant to provide evidence of
rent overcharge or to do calculations to prove it, need not
be answered; the law places the responsibility for that kind
of information on the landlord and the DHCR jointly.
The following practices may entitle the tenant to a lower
rent:
o rent increases in excess of the legal guidelines
o more than one guideline increase during a lease term
o failure to furnish a copy of the lease or the Rent
Stabilization Lease Rider
o failure to pay the annual apartment registration fee
o failure to get DHCR approval for a Major Capital
Improvement Rent Increase,
o failure, upon challenge, to provide receipts or proof
of payment for new equipment or renovation improvements
that resulted in rent increases
Landlords may not hold more than one month's legal rent as a
security deposit. Any amount in excess of that is considered
an overcharge. RA-89 is the appropriate complaint form to
use. (RS)
TENANT OBJECTION TO INITIAL RENT/SERVICES REGISTRATION
(FORM TC-1)
This form has a limited, but exact, purpose; it was
originally intended to be used by tenants to challenge the
initial 1984 registration of rents and services of all
regulated apartments. Although Rent Stabilization Laws were
enacted in 1969, no provision for annual registration was
made until the Omnibus Act of 1983 was passed. Annual
registration, under DHCR supervision, began April 1, 1984.
The form is now used to challenge the first stabilized rent
or "Initial Legal Registered Rent" charged by the landlord
after a vacancy in a previously rent controlled apartment;
the process is known as a Fair Market Rent Appeal. Tenants
should, when filing the TC-1 (TC-2 in Spanish), check the
boxes that indicate "overcharge" and "Fair Market Rent
Appeal" to specify the nature of the complaint.
This form can also be used to challenge the individual and
building-wide services listed as provided, by the landlord,
on Forms RR-1 and RR-3. These forms are not to be used for
complaints of ordinary loss or decrease in services. For
that form see below. (RS)
TENANT'S COMPLAINT OF OWNER'S FAILURE TO RENEW LEASE AND/OR
FAILURE TO FURNISH A COPY OF SIGNED LEASE (FORM RA-9OA)
A new tenant who rents a stabilized apartment is entitled to
a vacancy lease for a one or two year term (tenant's choice)
signed by the landlord or his agent along with a copy of the
Rent Stabilization Rider. The rider explains key provisions
of the law and lists the previous regulated rent and how the
current rent was computed. The tenant has an automatic right
to a lease renewal. The landlord must give written notice of
renewal 150 to 120 days before the expiration of the
existing lease on DHCR Renewal Lease Form RTP-8. Attached to
every renewal form, there must be a copy of the Rent
Stabilization Rider as well.
The tenant has 60 days to accept, sign, and return copies of
the renewal form or to decide not to renew. If the landlord
fails to send these forms in the required time frame, or if
he does and then does not return an executed (signed) copy
within 30 days after the tenant has signed and returned
them, then the tenant may file RA-90. The DHCR will issue an
order directing the landlord to provide the tenant with the
executed lease or rider or both. If there is no compliance
within 20 days, the new rent increase will be suspended and
the landlord may be fined.
See our fact sheet, Leases and Lease Renewals for Rent
Stabilized Tenants.(RS)
SERVICES & MAINTENANCE
======================
INDIVIDUAL TENANT STATEMENT OF COMPLAINT OF DECREASE IN SERVICES
(FORM RA-81A)
Rent Stabilized tenants are entitled to services required by
the stabilization laws as of the base-dates May 31, 1968
and/or May 29, 1974. These required services include:
repairs, decorating and maintenance, heat and hot water,
janitorial services, and refuse removal.
Rent Controlled apartments must be provided with all
services furnished or required to have been furnished as of
the base date March 1, 1943 and all authorized service
increases or decreases since that base date. These services,
also called required services, may include: repairs,
decorating and maintenance, heat, hot water, elevator
service, building staff such as superintendents and
handymen, refuse removal, etc.
Within apartments, service reductions typically consist of;
peeling paint or plaster, broken windows, faulty electrical
circuits, inoperative appliances (refrigerator or stove
supplied by landlord), defective plumbing, etc.
Tenants should first notify the landlord of any decrease in
their apartment services. Notification should be in writing,
by certified mail with return receipt. Failure by the
landlord to restore services within a reasonable or agreed
upon date should prompt the tenant to file DHCR Form RA-81a.
See fact sheet Rent Reductions for Lack of Services. (RC,RS)
STATEMENT OF COMPLAINT OF A DECREASE IN BUILDING-WIDE SERVICES
(FORM RA-84)
Stabilized tenants who wish to complain of a decrease in a
building wide service (such as lack of heat or hot water,
unsanitary garbage disposal, faulty plumbing, or breaches of
building security) and seek a rent reduction as partial
compensation, must each sign a joint complaint on Form RA-
84. However, not all rent controlled tenants need sign the
form, as long as one does, any resulting DHCR action will
apply to all the controlled tenants in the building.
Tenants should, again, first attempt to get the landlord to
remedy any building wide service problem, with notification
by receipted mail, before filing RA-84; otherwise the DHCR
might consider the filing premature.
A copy of the complaint is sent to the landlord with a
notice to reply. Tenants will receive a copy of this reply,
if there is one. Upon a landlord's reply, tenants have 20
days to answer. If questions of fact are unresolved, a DHCR
inspection may be ordered and if the tenant complaint is
confirmed, rent reductions and a rent freeze for stabilized
tenants (controlled rents become frozen only if the reduced
services are essential) will be ordered along with an order
to restore services. If the latter is ignored, landlord is
subject to further fines and/or penalties. (RC,RS)
TENANT'S APPLICATION FOR RENT REDUCTION BASED UPON THE OWNER'S
FAILURE TO PROVIDE AND MAINTAIN HEAT AND/OR HOT WATER SERVICE(S)
(FORM HHW-1)
Individual tenants may file DHCR Form HHW-1. For supportive
evidence, a diary of daily indoor and outdoor temperatures
should be kept, including photographs of inoperative heating
systems (frozen pipes, cold furnaces), as well as copies of
all written correspondence to the landlord requesting
repairs.
The DHCR, upon corroborating complaints of lack of heat
and/or hot water, may reduce the rents and forbid any
increases until services are restored. See our fact sheet,
Heat and Hot Water Complaints. (RC,RS)
Before filing with the DHCR, tenants in New York City who
are without heat or hot water should first call, repeatedly
if necessary, the NYC Central Complaint Bureau's Hotline at
212-824-4328. When a code enforcement inspector is sent, he
will issue building violations, and if necessary, authorize
emergency repairs. This strategy is also available to
tenants living in unregulated private buildings.
TENANT STATEMENT OF COMPLAINT'(S) HARASSMENT (FORM RA-60H)
The DHCR is responsible for processing, hearing, and
resolving complaints alleging landlord harassment.
Harassment is defined as an activity or course of conduct on
the part of a landlord designed to drive tenants out of
their apartment or give up rights granted them by the Rent
Stabilization Laws or Rent Control Laws. Harassment is
further defined as a continuous, patterned action that
intends to, or does interfere with or disturb, the "privacy,
comfort, peace, repose, or quiet enjoyment of the tenant in
his or her use or occupancy of the housing accommodation".
Interruption or discontinuance of required services,
engaging in unwarranted or base-less court proceedings,
arson, and verbal or physical abuse are all forms of
harassment.
Tenants may file harassment charges on Form RA-60H with the
Enforcement Bureau of DHCR.
The bureau is staffed with attorneys who specialize in this
aspect of the rent laws. Landlords found guilty of tenant
harassment, are subject to large fines and rents may be
frozen. Additionally, if there is any danger to health or
safety, the bureau may order preventive action. Although
findings of harassment are rare, the proceeding may have the
desired effect of stopping a landlord's unlawful actions.
File RA-60H at DHCR, Enforcement Bureau, 156 William Street.
New York. NY 10038. (RC,RS)
FILING AND FOLLOW-UP WITH THE DHCR
==================================
1. File all documents in duplicate. Submit both an original and
a duplicate.
2. Keep a record of everything. Retain a copy of vital
documents; do not send originals of leases, etc. DHCR will
notify if originals are required.
3. File by certified mail or by hand. Certified or registered
mail is suggested. If filing by hand, a file copy should be
date-stamped.
4. Do not make oral agreements with the landlord or DHCR.
5. Type or print the complaint.
6. Don't overdo the complaint. Keep it simple. Don't engage in
rhetoric or narratives. Rebuttal of the landlord's claims
should be in the reply filed in response to his answer to
your complaint. If the landlord does not file an answer, he
will be in default.
7. File a reply. The landlord's answer should not be ignored.
8. Petition for Administrative Review (PAR), an administrative
appeal must be filed within 35 days of the issue date of a
DHCR order. (See fact sheet Petition for Administrative
Review)
9. File at Borough Rent Office or: DHCR-Office of Rent
Administration, Gertz Plaza, 92-31 Union Hall Street,
Jamaica, New York 11433.
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Center (CTRC) and reproduced by TenantNet. They may be freely
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purposes only and do not purport to provide legal advice. If
you require legal advice, you should consult with a legal
practitioner licensed to practice in your jurisdiction.
Community Training Resource Center (212)964-7200
47 Ann Street
New York, NY 10038
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