Posted by Anna on March 01, 2000 at 12:04:50:
In Reply to: Decontrol posted by Nick on February 29, 2000 at 14:05:23:
RE: Larry's answer: forgetaboutit.
What type of lease the prior tenant had is not clear to me: so for the following, I'll just assume it was stabilized.
It is not too late. If you were overcharged within the last four years, you can still file an overcharge complaint, either with DHCR or in court, to recover the money you paid, plus treble damages (3x the overcharge).
Rent control and rent stabilization follow different paths to 'high rent deregulation': the Appellate Division just confirmed in a rent control case last month: they both share one thing: the apt must first actually rent for >$2000 to a real tenant at a legal rent, then become vacant. It will be automatically deregulated for the next tenant, e.i. the second tenant >$2000, not the first. (that Negron case is not relevant to this subject) Read the actual stabilization section 26-504.2 for yourself, as amended by RRRA97: it says this twice in the first sentence.
http://tenant.net/Alerts/Guide/rrra97.html
S 26-504.2 Exclusion of high rent accommodations. {a.} "Housing
accommodations" shall not include any housing accommodation which
becomes vacant on or after April first, nineteen hundred ninety-seven
and where at the time the tenant vacated such housing accommodation the
legal regulated rent was two thousand dollars or more per month, OR ANY HOUSING ACCOMMODATION WHICH IS OR BECOMES VACANT ON OR AFTER THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE RENT REGULATION REFORM ACT OF 1997 WITH A LEGAL REGULATED RENT OF TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS OR MORE PER MONTH.
(caps in original to indicate new material)
Therefore, you were stabilized even though your landlord said you weren't and
So the only question remaining is: what should the 'legal regulated rent' have been? In order to legally increase the rent $1000 above the vacancy allowance (at least 18%, plus 0.x% per year the prior tenant lived there), your landlord would have had to spend $40,000 in renovations and improvements while the apt was vacant. Possible, but not likely.
What should you do now?
1. go in person to DHCR with your lease and some ConEd or other bills received while you lived there and request a Rent History. (Usually a tenant can just call them, but they send the Rent History only to 'Occupant" at the apt.)
2. ask them exactly what kind of tenancy that one prior to yours was. (even if corp, it may have been stabilized)
3. ask for info/forms re Rent Overcharge.
4. do not file anything until you have a lawyer review all these papers. You'l have to decide whether to file with DHCR and wait years or sue them in Civil or Supreme Court. you may wish to first confrim all this with a Tenant counselor or Tenant Attorney at a Tenant Clinic: try the West Side Tenants Union on Tuesday night, they have both, free.
ps: Read more about this on TenantNet Home, the DHCR section in NY Tenants Info
pps: if DHCR refuses you the Rent History, contact the current tenant who will probably be thrilled to order one when you explain that their rent will be reduced if yours was wrong and they too might win treble damages!
if anyone asks, the recent rent control case is: 101 W. 70th Street Associates v
v. NYS DHCR, Appellate Division, First Dept, 2/24/00.
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