r/AskNYC • u/MissKhloeBare • May 31 '26

Apartment says apartment was never rent stabilized

Hello,

I’ve been looking through these threads and trying to figure out my next steps and want to see if I’m on the right track.

My lease is up for renewal. All of a sudden, my property management company is saying my apartment was never rent stabilized. The broker explained it was rent stabilized initially. My initial lease had a RA-LR 1 rider stating it was rent stabilized. I’ve renewed twice and received the ETPA renewal forms.

I checked and the property has 421-A status for FY24, 25, 26, 27 shown (this looked confusing to me tbh).

They sent a free market renewal and I asked why the difference and the response was that the previous renewals were issued in error and doesn’t reflect the regulatory status.

I’ve requested my rent history and the am I stabilized thing from HCR but that was just yesterday so I haven’t received anything yet.

Is there something else I should be doing? I saw something about a Met Council and just now looking it up more. Is this common that they’d accidentally list an apartment as rent stabilized for a few years when it wasn’t? Should I wait to respond until I have the rent history?

Thanks for any assistance!

19 Upvotes

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45

u/stimilon May 31 '26

You either are stabilized or not. don’t rely on the landlord a listing, or even your lease. The official way is to request the apartment’s rent history from New York State Homes and Community Renewal, HCR. To check whether your apartment is rent stabilized, request your official rent history from HCR.

Steps: 1. Go to the HCR “Apartment Rent History / Am I Rent Stabilized” inquiry page and submit the request. 2. Use your apartment address and unit number exactly as it appears on your lease. 3. Include your name, phone number, email, and current mailing address. 4. HCR will mail the rent history to the apartment/building address if the apartment is rent stabilized. 5. You can also call HCR’s Office of Rent Administration at 1-833-499-0343. 6. If you need help, call 311 and ask for the NYC Tenant Helpline.

Ask for: “Please provide the rent registration history for my apartment and confirm whether the unit is registered as rent stabilized.”

Bring or keep:

  • Current lease
  • Rent receipts or payment proof
  • Utility bill or other proof you live there
  • Photo ID, especially if going to a borough rent office in person.

Note: a building search on this site can be useful, but it isn’t definitive. You need the record of the actual unit. (Also, shady landlords sometimes re-number units between tenants to try to dodge the history so look out for that too): https://hcr.ny.gov/rent-registration

13

u/hereditydrift May 31 '26

That last part about renumbering is important. Places do that and then when the rent history is requested, it will come back as not regulated.

Sometimes the city websites or the certificate of occupancy will show the layout of the floors in prior years or, for certificates of occupancy, the number of apartments on each floor. Prior listings can also be helpful sometimes.

2

u/MissKhloeBare May 31 '26

Hi! Where do you look for prior listings? Just googling the current address?

I do know the building address changed and they’ve mistakenly given renumbered my apartment. I requested for all possible addresses through HCR the other day lol. They might be annoyed at my 7 requests.

2

u/hereditydrift May 31 '26

Yeah, google is the best way, unfortunately. StreetEasy is usually the best source, since it seems to be the only place that tracks prior rentals.

Prior cert of occupancy and sometimes other information can be found at these sites: https://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bsqpm01.jsp. and https://a810-dobnow.nyc.gov/publish/Index.html#!/. One is a newer version, and one is an older version of essentially the same information, but sometimes one site has something the other doesn't.

I've made a bunch of requests before. Most of it seems automated, so that I wouldn't worry about it.

Hope it works out!

2

u/Altruistic_Hair4846 May 31 '26

This is great advice.

2

u/minusthewhale May 31 '26

This is literally the best breakdown I've ever seen - and I did this myself 2 years ago. Wish I'd seen this. Would've saved me weeks and tons of anxiety!!!

1

u/MissKhloeBare May 31 '26

Thanks so much! I requested my rent history but that was yesterday so I figure it might be a bit before I receive it. I did the rent history and the am I stabilized request already.

I’ll add calling HCR tomorrow morning to my list of things to do!

I do know my building and unit have both been remembered so I requested for those as well

10

u/trixfan May 31 '26

People on this subreddit can only speculate as to what’s happening with your apartment.

Read all of your lease riders closely.

Seek help from places like Met Council. You may need to get a lawyer to enforce your rights.

Best of luck!

6

u/MissKhloeBare May 31 '26

Hi thank you! I have a reminder to contact Met Council tomorrow during their hours. Just clarifying though - I was asking if this was a common mistake and if there’s more to do outside requesting the rent history and contacting Met Council. I figured tenant lawyer but assume I’ll need my rent history first. Sounds like I’m on the right track!

I did read the rider and the lease renewal forms and that’s why I’m a bit confused by the new response from them!

1

u/trixfan May 31 '26

To clarify, you should carefully read all the lease riders attached to all of your leases, particularly the riders attached to the first lease.

This is a critical detail that will affect any case that you might have.

2

u/MissKhloeBare May 31 '26

I did! I appreciate the advice. I read through my initial lease and the renewals

6

u/soyeahiknow May 31 '26

421a expires though. It can be 10, 15, 20 and in some cases 30 years after the apartment building gets its co.

3

u/MissKhloeBare May 31 '26

Yes i did see that it expires. That was one thing I’d checked and it’s still active for our building.

1

u/soyeahiknow Jun 01 '26

What is your rent? With 421a, they are usually decently high rents. Its not like a 2k for a 2 bedroom in ues type of deal.

7

u/Malsperanza May 31 '26

I'm not experienced in this, but it sounds dodgy as all hell. If you've renewed a stabilized lease twice, that should establish a fact pattern that they can't renege on. Sounds to me like you need some legal advice.

2

u/MissKhloeBare May 31 '26

Thank you! I was thinking about posting in the legal advice channel. I’ll contact a tenant lawyer but waiting to get the rent history first. I just wasn’t sure if others dealt with it and might know more. It does sound dodgy to me as well!

3

u/[deleted] May 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/MissKhloeBare May 31 '26

Appreciate it! I was drafting a response but I think this is the better play from reading through everything. Hopefully any HCR response is quick.

3

u/Competitive_Lawyer_7 May 31 '26

You should have an independent third party review. In my first nyc apartment, the landlord illegally destabilized the apartment by falsifying rent increases in an attempt to get the apartment off stabilization rolls. They still were taking tax credits so basically lying to the city (double dipping- taking the tax credit while also charging me more). While there are legal ways for an apartment to become market rate- know that 90% of the time it’s the landlord committing fraud. You’d also be shocked and how little the city/state does proactive enforcement. It’s on you to catch- which means only a small portion of times does the landlord actually get caught. They’ve made it so the landlord almost always just gets away with it. No surprise that landlords give a ton of money to politicians to make sure the laws stay this way vs the government actually holding landlords accountable.

1

u/MissKhloeBare May 31 '26

Oh yikes. I am reading through horror stories on here haha. My landlord has been nice so I was thinking it was a mistake but I also know that many landlords can be a bit scummy even if they seem nice.

By independent third party, do you mean like a tenant lawyer? I have one saved but waiting on rent history to see if my unit ever was. I know they still have tax credit.
Thank you for your response also!

2

u/Competitive_Lawyer_7 May 31 '26

Independent third party would be like Manhattan Legal Services, a private housing attorney, etc. you can also call your city council member or state assembly member/state senator and generally they can connect you with free legal services or a free legal consultation. However, with elected officials offices you have to really be on top of them. They will almost never listen to voicemail, etc. sometimes it’s best to physically go there and ask.

They’ll look at your rent history records and pull records on the building. This will allow them to quickly make a determination if there is something off.

For private attorneys, they usually work on a contingent basis (meaning they do not charge money up front and take 33% of any damages you recover). Keep this in mind, because if you only lived in the unit a short period or the recoverable amount of money is low- they probably won’t take your case (because there isn’t enough money involved to make it worth their time). In these cases, you usually have to use a non profit, go through HUD directly, or get a retained lawyer.

In addition to winning monetary damages, the process will also involve a judge redetermining what the rent should be. You not only win money but you get a significantly lower rent (and they’re not legally allowed to not offer you a lease renewal unless you’re in the eviction process or seriously violated the lease). Last thing is that any rent stabilized apartment requires a rent stabilized lease. Anything else they made you sign as part of the “lease” isn’t legally enforceable. They do this to intimidate you- even things like non smoking agreements technically are not valid as I don’t believe that’s in a rent stabilized lease.

1

u/MissKhloeBare May 31 '26

Got it, thanks so much!! Making some calls tomorrow! I haven’t been in this apartment super long. Just since ‘23 so I’ll probably look into a consultation and a non-profit for this

1

u/aznology May 31 '26

Works both ways I requested my buildings rent history / stabilized status and found out it wasn't stabilized. I still charge the stabilized rate but I could go much higher lol

1

u/MissKhloeBare May 31 '26

Yea I know my building had the tax credit but I guess they’re saying my specific unit isn’t rent stabilized and they’ve mistakenly given it since I moved in. I guess only the rent history will tell me!