I live in a newly renovated unit in an old building in Brooklyn. The landlord used the space as an office prior to renovations in 2021. Our unit, "G5A1," as illustrated on our lease, is rent stabilized. However, things get a little weird:
- -Quickly realize that the door and our mailbox and utilities each indicate apartment G5A. All of the rest of the units in the building are 3 letters long.
-Our "new unit" is actually an old unit that was renovated and likely doubled in size. G5A used to be a 1 bedroom. We live in a 2 bedroom in an expanded footprint.
-The rent on our unit is $3700 – a lot more than the stabilized tenants around us in the building.
So, we requested the rent history for apartment G5A. It comes to us because all mail for G5A comes to us – there is no G5A1 mailbox.
Can someone help me make sense of what happened? Is this legitimate? If we were to try to ask the landlord to return an overcharge, what amount should the legal rent be?
Interestingly, I found a Dept of Buildings permit for the renovation work on our building. It shows "renovations to unit G5A and G5B." No indication of G5A1.
Rent history below:
https://imgur.com/a/YAQf1ds