My landlord recently emailed our building that he is potentially pursuing a sale. To protect us against rent hikes from new ownership, we've been investigating a long-held suspicion that many of the units may have been illegally de-stabilized.
Background on the building:
- Built in 1920
- Currently has eight units
- One of the tenants has been a resident for over 50 years and confirms that they pay a rent-stabilized rate
- We're in close contact with our neighbors. All those who haven't already requested rent history are in the process for doing so
Background on my unit, history requested in 2023:
- From 1984 to 1986 the unit was Rent Stabilized (RS)
- From 1987 to 1989 the unit was temporarily exempt due to owner residence in it (PE)
- In 1990 the unit was Rent Stabilized (RS)
- From 1991 to 1995 the unit was temporarily exempt due to owner residence in it (RS-TE)
- From 1996 to 2020 (the last year of data) it shows "*REG NOT FOUND FOR SUBJECT PREMISES*"
- The building has been managed by the current owner for 22 years
- We know the unit was at one time split from one large unit (3) into two smaller ones (3B and 3F). I requested data for both 3F and 3, and was told that there is no existing data for 3F - only for 3
From what I can tell, it seems like when the owner moved out, the unit should have reverted back to a Rent Stabilized status, but was never re-registered as such. Please let me know your thoughts, and if there's any additional information that would be helpful to provide. Thank you all in advance!
Edit: Since there's an absence of evidence, would it ever fall upon the potential new owner to prove the unit(s) WAS DESTABILIZED rather than us as the tenants to prove it is STILL STABILIZED?