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In New York City, the NYC Commission on Human Rights is charged with enforcing local fair housing laws. The New York City Human Rights Law is one of the most comprehensive civil rights laws in the nation. The law prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, creed, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, gender (including gender identity and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, disability, marital status, and partnership status. In addition, the law affords additional protections based on lawful occupation, family status, and any lawful source of income.

The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) recently updated its Web site with the necessary forms you have to fill out to start the process for increasing the rents of your rent-controlled apartments during the 2014–15 maximum base rent (MBR) cycle. Once you receive the orders of eligibility, you can raise your MBRs by 8.3 percent over their 2012–13 levels. The MBR increase for this cycle is higher than the 7.8 percent increase used in 2012–13.

If a rent-stabilized tenant asks your permission to sublet an apartment, you may legally refuse that request only if you have a good reason. Owners can’t “unreasonably” say no to a sublet request, according to the state’s sublet law [Section 226-b of the New York Real Property Law]. But what’s a good—that is, “reasonable”—reason for saying no?

Rent-stabilized apartments are sometimes temporarily exempt from rent stabilization. For example, while they’re occupied by the owner they are considered exempt. But when a new tenant moves in, the apartment reverts back to stabilization. In addition, you can collect the rent guidelines increases you missed out on while the apartment was exempt by pretending you increased the rent during the exempt period. And in some instances you may be able to collect a first rent, which is not based on the prior rent history of the apartment.

You may believe you have a right to charge extra fees to rent-stabilized tenants for certain items or services. For example, you may want to charge your tenants a fee for paying rent late or for taking over use of the elevator when moving furniture into their apartments.

As an apartment building owner, you constantly face the prospect of rent-stabilized and rent-controlled tenants getting rent cuts over service complaints. The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) has the authority to grant rent cuts for a wide variety of service problems.

If you want to collect a rent hike for making improvements to, or installing new equipment in, an occupied rent-stabilized apartment, you must get the tenant’s written consent to the rent hike. If you don’t do this properly and the tenant challenges the rent hike by filing a rent overcharge complaint with the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), you could lose out on the rent hike.

By Eileen O’Toole, Esq.

Sometimes staff or neighboring tenants may complain about behavior by a tenant that poses a health or safety risk. They may say that a neighbor keeps animals that he’s unable to care for, or simply keeps too many. They may complain that a tenant allows his apartment to become so dirty and cluttered that there’s an offensive odor, vermin infestation, and serious risk of fire. Or a tenant may repeatedly harass others, for no apparent reason, by yelling at or physically threatening neighbors and building staff.

If a tenant tells you that she’s moving out before her lease ends and she stops paying rent, it usually isn’t a big deal. In the best case scenario, you’ll be able to quickly re-rent the apartment to a qualified tenant and apply the former tenant’s security deposit toward any unpaid rent. So the tenant wouldn’t be on the hook for anything.

Building owners and managers often complain about graffiti. It’s not only unsightly but can lead to other problems. It can deter people from wanting to rent at your building, lower the quality of life there, and invite additional crime. Also, if you don’t remove the graffiti within a reasonable time and tenants complain, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) could issue a building-wide rent cut based on reduced services.