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J-51 question--is my landlord overcharging me?

NYC Rent Regulation: Rent Control/Rent Stabilized, DHCR Practice/Procedures

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J-51 question--is my landlord overcharging me?

Postby gabrielle » Sat Mar 31, 2018 3:59 pm

Hi,
I live in an apartment that seems to have been re-regulated (after being illegally de-regulated) during this whole J-51 fiasco (https://www.propublica.org/article/meet ... -rent-hike).

When we moved in, we were told our lease was rent-stabilized, but not told why. There was no J-51 rider in our initial lease. I did some research trying to figure out why our expensive apartment (more than 4k) was regulated, and guessed it was the J-51--online the nyc website reveated that the abatement was indeed granted, and had many years left on the abatement.

When we received our renewal lease, they included a J-51 rider for the first time, which listed an expiration date of THIS YEAR. I went online and checked again--the abatement years still hadn't changed, but they had paid off the balance of their abatement so that there was $0 remaining.

My questions are:
(1) is this legal? I was under the impression that when a building signed up for a tax benefit, they couldn't change their minds retroactively and negate the terms of that agreement by paying off the balance.
(2) Since we never received the J-51 rider in our initial lease, can we just ignore this rider in our renewal?

and a separate question:
-I requested the rent history, and the apartment is listed as vacant in april of the year we moved in (we moved in during the summer), with a registered rent that is several hundred dollars *less* than what we are being charged. Are we being overcharged? Or is the difference in these amounts a vacancy increase (or in other words--is the total listed for that year already reflective of the vacancy increase for that vacancy, or pre-increase).

Thanks so much! The information on this is so confusing.
gabrielle
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2018 3:49 pm

Re: J-51 question--is my landlord overcharging me?

Postby gabrielle » Sat Mar 31, 2018 4:40 pm

oops--realized the difference in my rent is likely due to renovations in the apartment. so please ignore the last question, just looking for help on the first two!
gabrielle
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2018 3:49 pm


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