Management Basics

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The DHCR recently issued a new lease rider, and similar addenda for those rental properties outside of New York City, that must be attached to all vacancy and renewal leases for rent-stabilized apartments. The new rider has multiple sections, but only the first two sections must be filled out by the owner. If the lease is a vacancy lease, both section one and two must be filled out; if it’s a renewal lease, only section two should be filled out.

As of March 5, 2018, new permit fees specified in Local Law 56 of 2016 are in effect. According to DOB’s recent service update, there are three categories of new permit fees:

On Jan. 22, the DHCR issued new fuel cost adjustment factors for rent-controlled apartments for the 2017 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.

Rent-regulated apartments with a legal or maximum monthly rent that reaches or exceeds $2,733.75 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 ...

On Jan. 17, the NYC Department of Finance (DOF) announced the publication of the tentative property assessment roll for fiscal year 2019. At this time, the DOF sends each owner a Notice of Property Value, which is the tentative assessment for the next fiscal year 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.

The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) recently updated Fact Sheet #40 on preferential rents and rent concessions. Fact sheets provide information to the public on rent regulation. The updated fact sheet reflects changes the Rent Act of 2015 made to vacancy allowances after a preferential lease and addresses whether penalties for failing to qualify for prompt payment discounts are enforceable under preferential rent rules. The update also makes a change to...

Established in 1971 when NYC officials were concerned about the drop in residential construction as residents were moving to the suburbs, the 421-a tax exemption program gave developers an incentive to build on vacant land. The program offered a 10-year tax exemption for building multi-unit residential projects. Specifically, the developer of a project on vacant or mostly vacant land is exempt from paying the taxes it would usually have to pay for a construction period ...

The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) recently announced a cut in this year’s air-conditioner rent surcharge for owners who pay for electricity. It set the monthly surcharge at $26.02, down 63 cents from $26.65 last year. This year’s decrease reflects the decrease in the price of electricity for electrical inclusion buildings as calculated by the Rent Guidelines Board’s 2017 Price Index of Operating Costs issued in April 2017.

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).