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When renting rent-stabilized apartments, you probably require security deposits from tenants, in case they cause any damage. A security deposit is money that a tenant deposits with the owner of the apartment for the repair of any damages to the apartment for which the tenant is responsible. Various laws govern how you must collect, retain, and refund these security deposits.
The City Council recently voted to approve a series of eight fire safety bills with the goal of making residential buildings safer. The bills were created in response to the Dec. 28, 2017, Bronx fire that killed 13 people, making it the city’s deadliest fire in more than a quarter century. According to fire investigators, the fire was started by a 3-year-old boy playing with burners on the stove. The boy’s mom grabbed her two kids and dashed out the door, leaving it open and allowing flames to shoot up the building stairwell.
When you defend against a tenant’s rent overcharge complaint, you must prove that you didn’t illegally increase the rent after the apartment’s base date. Section 2520.6(f) of the revised Rent Stabilization Code defines the base date as the date four years before the tenant filed the complaint, or the date the apartment first became subject to rent stabilization, whichever is later.
Last October, the Fair Housing Justice Center (FHJC), a New York City-based nonprofit civil rights organization, filed a lawsuit against an apartment building owner for allegedly defying housing discrimination laws. The owner, through its employees, allegedly lied to African Americans about the availability and rental rates in at least one Brooklyn apartment, turned back applicants with public rent assistance elsewhere, and made children undergo unnecessary lead tests.
Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced that 250 apartment buildings have been placed in the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s (HPD’s) Alternative Enforcement Program (AEP). The AEP was established in 2007 with the New York City Safe Housing Law (Local Law No. 29 of 2007). This law called for an annual list of different multiple dwellings with high counts of the most serious building code violations based on a broad set of criteria, including paid or unpaid emergency repair charges.
If a rent-regulated tenant has filed a reduced service complaint with the DHCR, you’ll need access to the tenant’s apartment to investigate the complaint and make any needed repairs. You’ll also need access to make repairs if you’re trying to get the rent restored after a rent cut order has been issued. If the tenant denies access in either of these situations, you must follow the DHCR’s no-access policy to avoid a rent cut or get the rent restored.
The DHCR recently revised Operational Bulletin 2016-1 to include changes or modifications made to an apartment that are reasonable modifications for a tenant with disabilities. Operational Bulleting 2016-1 provides guidance to owners and tenants of rent-stabilized apartments on how the DHCR will review the installation of individual apartment improvements (IAIs) when a complaint of rent overcharge has been filed or there is an investigation with respect to IAI installations.
Owners most familiar with the DHCR’s Tenant Protection Unit (TPU) have probably received audit notices seeking either DHCR rent registration compliance for rent-stabilized buildings or proof of individual apartment improvements (IAIs) performed that resulted in significant rent hikes. The TPU also has initiated investigations of some owners based on allegations of harassment—that is, activity that’s designed or intended to cause tenants to give up their rights as rent-regulated tenants.
The Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE, also known as the NYC Rent Freeze Program) freezes the rent for head-of-household seniors 62 and older who live in rent-regulated apartments. The NYC Department of Finance (DOF) administers SCRIE for rent-regulated (rent-stabilized and rent-controlled) apartments. In order to satisfy the income eligibility requirement, the senior’s household income must be $50,000 or less.
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