First off - in my many years of intermittently researching this issue, I hadn't yet found this site & forum. Truly amazing resources here!
I have a really puzzling situation with my apartment. I suspect I need to go to a lawyer to really understand what's going on, but I wondered if anyone might have insight.
I live in a large pre-war building in Brooklyn (84 units); I've occupied my unit since December 2013. My previous landlord always issued rent increases in line with rent stabilization guidelines, although I was told at lease signing "the building isn't actually rent stabilized." Whatever - it was fair rent, I was moving to the city for work on three weeks' notice.
That said, something always felt off. I did some research around 2015 and noted that the building was listed as destabilized due to co-op conversion in the late 80s. Okay, but no one (seriously, no one) except for the landlord actually owns their unit. We're all technically subletting sponsored units. The building is currently listed as Rent Regulated on HPDOnline, but was not registered with HCR until this year.
We started to have serious issues with responses to maintenance requests in 2019. I requested the unit's rental history from DHCR to see if just maybe we were rent regulated tenants after all and could leverage those protections to force repair work. I had a very bad experience with my last landlord in Boston (who attempted to illegally evict us to sell the building), so I'm very wary of starting trouble without significant protections.
The report listed the unit's initial registration as Rent Controlled with an occupant in 1984, then *RENT CONTROL - REG NOT REQUIRED* for every subsequent year, up to and including 2019. I'm unclear what this means. Obviously I am not the tenant from 1984, but my understanding is after his departure, the unit should have been moved from rent controlled to rent stabilized (well, until the "conversion").
The building was sold last summer. As part of the sale, I and the other tenants received a copy of the original offering plan and other paperwork on the building's value, finances, etc. The documents seem to show that ALL of the units were sponsored units on conversion. The only co-op board members were the landlord and a lawyer. Again - no idea if this makes the conversion/deregulation illegal, and what rights that gives tenants.
I and some other tenants were under the impression that any co-op building sale by a sponsor requires a new offering plan so tenants in sponsored units can purchase their units if desired; we asked and we were told by the new landlord that the state AG's office had a backlog (probably true!) but that the offering plan would be forthcoming. We're still waiting.
Meanwhile, a number of other tenants reported that their lease renewals came with very high rent increases ($500-$800/month), and many people left the building as a result. I've monitored Streeteasy, and the landlord is attempting to rent those vacant units for about $500 more than I currently pay.
Our 2023 renewal included a reasonable increase ($75), but the landlord is just sketchy. I reported a hot water outage affecting the entire left side of the building (after five days of no hot water, with us contacting the landlord and super every day) to 311. I had to report twice, as my anonymous report resulted in a close-out with no fix. When I reported with my information attached, I got a call from 311 to confirm the issue was fixed the next day (it was), and then a call from my landlord asking me "not to involve the city in these things."
Maintenance issues continue (I'm currently working at home waiting for my super to fix yet another water issue). I'm pretty sure we have more than a few violations of the warranty of habitability at this point, but again, I've always been worried about causing trouble - my husband is disabled and moving would be costly and difficult. The new landlords got screwed on the sale - there was a ton of deferred maintenance and the previous landlord basically gave up on the building when the pandemic started, so I get that they may just be trying to cover repair costs - but that's the job.
I'm worried our renewal this year will come with a huge increase - which I might even pay if they'd agree to repairs and upgrades to make the unit worth that amount - but this situation feels so off at this point, I'm wary of agreeing to anything without clarity on exactly what is going on with my apartment and what my rights are. On the other hand, I might be on a list of "troublemakers who know too much" and will just be quietly ignored on all fronts (maintenance needs and otherwise) until I give up and leave.
Is my best bet just to take all my documents to a lawyer? Is it even worth it if I'm not sure what my rent increase will be yet? I'm thinking of going to a lawyer to get advice on requesting improvements at renewal anyway, for what that's worth.
Thanks for getting this far in reading this saga, and thank you for any suggestions!