Management Basics

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During the previous “heat season,” the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) fielded 200,224 heat complaints. The current heat season begins on Oct. 1 and continues through May 31, 2018. During this time period, residential building owners with tenants are required by law to provide heat and hot water to their tenants. This year, a new law increases the minimum required overnight heat temperature.

If you sign a vacancy lease with a tenant between Oct. 1, 2017, and Sept. 30, 2018, the new order issued on June 27 by the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB)—RGBO #49—lets you collect the vacancy increases permitted under the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997 (RRRA).

On June 27, 2017, the New York City Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) issued an order—RGBO #49—setting the rent increases you may take for rent-stabilized tenants in New York City on leases beginning anytime on or after Oct. 1, 2017, through Sept. 30, 2018. This order represents the first hike on one-year renewal leases after two years of rent freezes by the board.

You must file an Annual Apartment Registration application with the DHCR for every rent-stabilized apartment you own by July 31, 2017, using the DHCR’s online Owner Rent Regulation Application system. As in past years, the penalty for not filing is stiff: You can’t collect a rent increase—or even apply for one—until you file.

The NYC Department of Finance (DOF) requires certain owners of residential properties to file the Real Property Income & Expense Statement (RPIE) every year. The DOF needs income and expense information each year to value your property accurately.

Local Law 84 (LL84) requires owners of large buildings to annually measure their energy and water consumption in a process called benchmarking. LL84 standardizes this process by requiring building owners to enter their annual energy and water use in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) online tool, ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, and use the tool to submit data to the city. Building owners are subject to a penalty if usage data isn’t submitted by May 1 every year.

You probably know that if you promptly refund an overcharge to a tenant who has filed a rent overcharge complaint against you, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) shouldn’t order you to pay triple damages for the amount of the overcharge. There are numerous DHCR decision in which the DHCR denied or revoked triple damages tenants sought for rent overcharges because owners gave tenants rent credits or refunds, plus interest, while the tenants’ complaints were pending. But to avoid that penalty, your refund must also include interest on the overcharge amount.

The DOF recently released revised guidance on the implementation of the MCI tax abatement provided for in Section 65 of Chapter 20 of the laws of 2015. The Rent Law of 2015 included changes to the amortization period for the calculation of major capital improvement (MCI) rent increases. The changes, in effect, lowered the monthly rent increases that owners could pass on to their tenants.

Rent-regulated apartments with a legal or maximum monthly rent that reaches or exceeds $2,700 may be petitioned for high-income rent deregulation. The Rent Act of 2015 amended the rent threshold for high-rent vacancy deregulation and high-income/high-rent deregulation by raising the threshold from $2,500 to $2,700. The DHCR recently updated the high-income rent deregulation forms to reflect the increased thresholds. Also, moving forward, the threshold will be adjusted annually by the one-year renewal lease guideline percentage increase issued the prior year by the Rent Guidelines Board.

On Jan. 23, the DHCR issued new fuel cost adjustment factors for rent-controlled apartments for the 2016 calendar year. The prices are based on a study of home heating oil prices provided by the NYC Rent Guidelines Board oil survey, a NYS Energy Research and Development Authority report, rate schedules for utility companies providing heating fuel, and a survey of retail coal vendors. During the calendar year for 2016, the findings show that fuel prices generally increased, with three exceptions for gas—National Grid of New York, gas—National Grid, and coal.