Hi All,
Just wanted to preface this and say that this is a great community and I've been learning a lot from this and really appreciate this forum!
Context: I moved into my apartment last year and my lease is coming up for renewal soon. I requested my rental history from the Division of Housing and Community Renewal since I had a hunch my unit was previously rent controlled. Turns out it was rent controlled - until 2009. I scanned through the rental history and it was rent controlled from 1984 to 2009 with one tenant. The legal registered rent in 1984 was listed as $69.58 (although I think this means per week because that is ridiculously low per month, even in 1984).
This same tenant stayed in the apartment until 2009 and upon vacancy, the landlord immediately deregulated the apartment and had a listed "actual paid rent" of $1,774.
This is how it's shown:
2008 - *RENT CONTROL - REG NOT REOUIRED*
2009 - Permanently Exempt - 07/31/2009 - HIGH RENT VACANCY -
1744.00 RENT CONC (03/25/2009)
VAC/LEAS (08/15/2010)
2010 - Exempt Apartment - Reg not required
So the landlord used the high rent vacancy deregulation method, however, my question is that is that even possible given that the threshold was $2,000 in 2009 to deregulate an apartment? I've also read on the NYC Building (BIS) site that there was a construction job permit for this apartment in 2008, but it was only listed as $10,000 worth of improvements. I highly doubt the improvements were more than that considering this apartment is tiny and has a kitchenette without a full-sized fridge, no microwave, etc.
Is this a likely case of an illegal deregulation? And if so, is there anything I can do about this?
Any advice is greatly appreciated and feel free to let me know if I can provide some more information or context.