Hello! I'm so glad to have stumbled upon this forum. I've got a sticky situation.
My building was recently sold, and the new owners are trying to force the current tenants out. They seem to be going about it in a shady way, so I am trying to explore my rights and options.
I moved here in 2021, and was not given any sort of rent stabilization documentation in my lease, which was for two years. The new owners have said that I can stay through the end of my lease, but not renew after that.
I requested my rent history, and it seems that my apartment was rent-stabilized until 2011, and nothing has been reported since then. It just says *REG NOT FOUND FOR SUBJECT PREMISES* for every year since. In 2011, the rent was $1436.61. I believe it was built in 1930.
At some point, before I was living here, two of the units were combined into one (not mine), bringing the total amount of units from six to five, and theoretically being the reason for not being stabilized.
My widespread question is -- what do I do?
More specifically: Would converting that unit from two to one legitimately destabilize the rest of the building? (I have trouble believing that, because I feel like if it was that easy, every landlord with a six-unit building would be doing that.) Is there any way to see if they "properly" destabilized my unit? Should they have been reporting the rent anyway? If it can be proven that the PREVIOUS owners illegally destabilized, do the NEW owners have the right to kick us out? Or do we go back to being stabilized and protected? Are we owed back rent? Any other important things that I should be thinking about and am somehow missing?
Thanks so much in advance!