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During the previous “heat season,” the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) fielded 232,621 heat complaints, an increase of 8.1 percent compared to the previous heat season. The current heat season begins on Oct. 1 and continues through May 31, 2020. During this time period, residential building owners with tenants are required by law to provide heat and hot water to their tenants.
The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) recently announced a decrease in this year’s air-conditioner rent surcharge for owners who pay for electricity. It set the monthly surcharge at $24.94, down $1.48 from $26.42 last year. This year’s decrease reflects a 5.61 percent decline in the price of electricity for electrical inclusion buildings as calculated by the Rent Guidelines Board’s 2019 Price Index of Operating Costs issued in April 2019.
The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA) of 2019, which went into effect on June 14, 2019, made numerous changes to the rent regulation laws. These changes required the DHCR to review and update the New York City Lease Rider [RA-LR1] and the Emergency Tenant Protection Act Standard Lease Addenda [RA-LR1 ETPA] to reflect these changes.
On June 25, 2019, the New York City Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) issued an order—RGBO #51—setting the rent increases you may take for rent-stabilized tenants in New York City on leases beginning anytime on or after Oct. 1, 2019, through Sept. 30, 2012. The board is mandated to establish fair rents for property owners and tenants. And the mayor appoints members to the board. The board is made up of two tenant representatives, two landlord representatives, and five members of the public with experience in housing or economics.
You must file an Annual Apartment Registration application with the DHCR for every rent-stabilized apartment you own by July 31, 2019, 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.
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.
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.
The DHCR has recently posted a list of J-51 buildings with potentially problematic registration and deregulation issues.
The J-51 tax break program gives owners tax exemptions for carrying out rehabs and renovations of older, multi-dwelling buildings. Renovation work could include such projects as installing hot water, repairing the roof, and installing an elevator. As part of the deal, owners must ensure that all the units within the building are rent regulated for the duration of the tax break, which typically lasts between 14 to 34 years.
Rent-regulated apartments with a legal or maximum monthly rent that has reached or exceeded $2,774.76 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, with a stipulation that the threshold will be increased each Jan. 1 thereafter by the one-year renewal lease guideline percentage issued the prior year by the Rent Guidelines Board.
On Jan. 22, the DHCR issued new fuel cost adjustment factors for rent-controlled apartments for the 2018 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 2018, the findings show that fuel prices generally increased or had no change, with one exception for electricity.
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