Rent-regulated apartments with a legal or maximum monthly rent that reach or exceed $2,500 as of May 1, 2015, may be petitioned for high-income rent deregulation this year. Current exceptions to luxury deregulation are buildings currently receiving J-51 or 421-a tax benefits and rent-controlled units in buildings that had previously received J-51 tax benefits.

Every Jan. 15, the NYC Department of Finance (DOF) sends to each owner a tentative assessment for the next fiscal year (2016, in the current case) conveying the market value of the lot, including improvements, the actual assessed value of the lot, and, most important, the value upon which the lot will be taxed for the upcoming fiscal year.

Local Law 43 and other state legislation regulating heating oils (No. 4 and No. 6) in New York City were put in place to address the public health hazard presented by these fuels. The rules affecting types of oil used in boilers were passed in April 2011 as part of an update to Mayor Bloomberg’s environmental agenda.

Q: Can I collect special rent increases for low-rent apartments that were issued under Rent Guidelines Board Order No. 41 and later challenged in court?

The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) recently announced an increase in this year’s air-conditioner rent surcharge for owners who pay for electricity. It set the monthly surcharge at $36.63, up from $27.89 last year. This year’s 31 percent increase reflects an 8.5 percent increase in electrical costs and an 8.4 percent increase in the utilities component of the Price Index of Operating Costs as calculated by the Rent Guidelines Board and publi...

By Carolyn E. Zezima, Esq.

If you own or manage a rent-regulated building with garage spaces that are also covered under rent control or rent stabilization, you must be careful when you rent those garage spaces to tenants. You can’t increase the rents of those garage spaces by more than the allowable rent control increases or the applicable Rent Guidelines Board Order (RGBO) increases. And once you start providing a garage space, it becomes a required service that you can’t stop provi...

If you sign a vacancy lease with a tenant between Oct. 1, 2014, and Sept. 30, 2015, the new order issued on June 23 by the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB)—RGBO #46—lets you collect the vacancy increases permitted under the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997 (RRRA).

On June 23, 2014, the New York City Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) issued an order—RGBO #46—setting the rent increases you may take for rent-stabilized tenants in New York City on leases beginning anytime on or after Oct. 1, 2014, through Sept. 30, 2015.

On June 11, Mayor de Blasio announced the start of a long-overdue security camera installation in six public housing developments around the city. Previously, de Blasio had blamed the city for the lack of security cameras in housing project buildings, calling the delay “unacceptable bureaucracy.” This prolonged issue received greater attention in the wake of the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old and critical injuring of a 7-year-old who were attacked while on t...