Famed commentator and landlord-tenant practitioner Dov Treiman examines the January 8, 2014 amendments to the Rent Stabilization Code.

Topics include:

• Institutionalization of the Tenant Protection Unit;
• Setting the rents in buildings entering rent regulation after having been New York City sponsored cooperatives;
• A new requirement that preferential rents and the claimed legal rent both be set forth in all leases and lease renewals where there is a preferential rent and a procedure for the DHCR to examine the preferential rent;
• An exclusion of sub-metering from MCI eligibility;
• A broadening of “C” violations that disqualify MCI increases and who could investigate them;
• Exemption of disabled persons from sub-metering;
• Exemption of qualified senior citizens and disabled persons from luxury decontrol;
• Expanded mandatory lease riders setting forth more information about how the rent was calculated and the right of the tenant to demand back up documentation for these calculations;
• An expansion of the advisories to tenants in languages other than English;
• Institutionalization of the so-called “default formula” for calculating rents, including institutionalization of DHCR’s ability to set such rents on a manner completely opaque to both landlords and tenants;
• Codification of case law exceptions to the four year look back rule and expanded vitiation of the rule;
• New rules for reduction of service complaints, removing prerequisites for their filing;
• Restrictions on vacancy increases and longevity increases where there is an outstanding rent reduction order;
• Codification of holdings that deemed leases do not hold the tenant for a new lease term;
• Codification of the requirement to register an apartment as leaving rent regulation and codification and expansion of the requirement to send a first unregulated tenant a so-called “exit notice,” setting forth the basis of the deregulation;
• Codification of the “add five days for mailing” rule, but explicitly limiting it to notices to cure, access notices, and certain notices in rent stabilized hotels;
• Expansion of the definition of “harassment” to include false filings;
• Creation of a new formula for calculating rent on a long term exempt apartment without taking it out of regulation;
• A new requirement for starting a proceeding to amend any but the current year’s registration statement;
• Codification of disqualification for an MCI or a vacancy increase when the apartment is not properly registered;
• Clarification of the filing deadlines for an Article 78 proceeding;
• Prohibition of luxury decontrol for qualifying seniors and disabled persons.