Are You Paying Too Much Rent?

There are many people moving into the neighborhood as well as longtime residents that are not familiar with the rent laws in New York City concerning rent stabilized apartments, and as a result may be being overcharged on their rent. How are they being overcharged? When someone moves out of a rent stabilized apartment, which is an apartment whose rent can only be incrementally raised by guidelines stipulated and regulated by New York City the rent should only be increased by the prescribed percentage and not more. So, this being the case the next person to rent an apartment that is rent stabilized should be paying a rent that has been increased from the previous tenants based on variables concerning how recent was previous tenants lease. (Please see the chart from New York State website titled Homes and Community Renewal for these rent increase guidelines 7/6/16 12:37 p.m. http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/Rent-Increases-PR1-2015-16.pdf). To give you an example, if the last tenant lease started less than two years ago then the increase should be 5% above the last tenants rent.

To find out if you are paying more rent that you should you will need to get a printout of the rent history for your apartment, this also might be helpful to you in finding out if your apartment was deregulated from a rent stabilized to a market rent apartment unlawfully. To request this information online go to www..nyshcr.org or call 718-739-6400. This is the same contact information to file the overcharge complaint ( Fact Sheet#26 Guide to Increases for Rent Stabilization from the Division of Housing and Community Renewal Office of Rent Administration 7/6/16 5:52 p.m.) .

For more information http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/factsheets/orafac26.pdf or you can call 311.

Why is paying more than one should on rent such a big deal? Here are few reasons why. It is bad for the person who is paying because this outlay is a drain on their personal resources that could go towards owning their own home, increasing a family, paying for bills or going to school, funding a trip, and this extra income can also be spent in the community thereby stimulating local economy. This overpayment is also bad for old and new residents once the higher rents are in place, as it forces the market rents up for everyone.

To give a point of reference for people moving in and don’t have ties to the community “yet,” what this rent escalation represents to the people who have had longer ties is that they are pushed to leave their communities as they can no longer afford to live where they have family, friends and community. It forces them to move to distant locations, while they are very often still employed where they had been, only now they have a longer commute with less time for themselves or their families, and less financial resources since they have to pay more for transportation. This reduces their standard of living and breaks up communities. The aforementioned is the case for those that have some financial mobility, but for those that do not, and I am speaking of seniors and people on the lowest end of the financial spectrum, they can be very easily forced right out onto the street. So, even though some may be able to pay the market rent easily, and it will not have so much of an impact on them directly, it has a huge impact on the communities into which they may be moving into.

And what does this mean also for the people that can pay the market rents, but are somewhat on the margin of just affording it? It forces them into paying high rents today and even higher rents tomorrow. It forces them into living conditions where they are paying a lot of money to share an apartment with strangers, it decreases their standard of living, it reduces their ability to live independently and most certainly it destroys their ability to be part of a community for any meaningful extended period of time because once the rent goes up, it’s time for them to move. This revolving door for renting and moving doesn't benefit either older or newer residents, but it does benefit developers, landlords and realtors by making a profit by keeping the rents going higher.

An article in the Washington Post dated June 3rd 2016 titled, In pricey Bay Area, some turn to vans for cheap living quarters, details how professionals earning decent salaries are renting vans to live in because they can’t afford the rents in San Francisco, gives us a bird eye view of where we are all headed if we are not more proactive in making sure that rents remain at reasonable rates. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/in-pricey-bay-area-some-turn-t...). Living in a car is not the way anyone should live. We should not be rent poor.

Be wise and be aware, contact the city and get the rent history for your apartment, with this information, if you are being overcharged, you can contact your landlord and demand that your rent be reduced and be refunded what you have already over-payed. Make your friends and family aware, and help your neighbors that maybe don’t have the computer skills or the physical resources to attempt to get the information they need.