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Possible to request copy of IAI filing for you apartment?

NYC Rent Regulation: Rent Control/Rent Stabilized, DHCR Practice/Procedures

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Possible to request copy of IAI filing for you apartment?

Postby rentstubq » Wed Apr 27, 2016 8:44 pm

If a tenant moves into a new apartment and is given a lease that reads market, but requests the rental history which indicates that the tenant immediately prior to him was stabilized, is it possible to request from DHCR for a copy of the IAI filing that the landlord filed during the vacancy? It seems like you need the docket number, which the new tenant wouldn't necessarily know.
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Re: Possible to request copy of IAI filing for you apartment

Postby TenantNet » Thu Apr 28, 2016 9:18 pm

LLs are not required to file to increase rents when they do IAIs. For building-wide MCI's they are required to file an application.
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Re: Possible to request copy of IAI filing for you apartment

Postby rentstubq » Tue May 03, 2016 9:50 am

Really - they don't have to provide any documentation to DHCR for the amount of money spent in an individual unit when it's vacant in order to justify the increase? That seems insane.
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Re: Possible to request copy of IAI filing for you apartment

Postby Sky » Thu May 05, 2016 12:39 am

I'm curious about this process too.

http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/factsheets/orafac26.pdf
(in particular have a look at the last paragraph).

"4. Individual Apartment Improvement ("IAI") rent increase.
Where an owner installs a new appliance in or makes an improvement to an apartment, the owner can raise the rent by 1/40th or 1/60th of the costs. In an occupied apartment, the owner must first obtain the written consent of the tenant to the increase, in order to charge and collect it. In a vacant apartment, tenant consent is not required.
Pursuant to the Rent Act of 2011, effective September 24, 2011, in buildings that contain more than 35 apartments, the owner can collect a permanent rent increase equal to 1/60th of the cost of the Individual Apartment Improvement (IAI). In buildings that contain 35 apartments or less, the owner can collect a permanent rent increase equal to 1/40th of the cost of the IAI, as had previously been allowed.
For example, if a new dishwasher is installed in a vacant apartment, in a 100 unit building, and the cost is $900, the rent can be increased by $15 (1/60th of $900). The same installation in a 20 unit building would result in a $22.50 rent increase (1/40th of $900). The increase, if taking place on a vacancy, is added to the legal rent after the application of the statutory vacancy increase, not before. (See Fact Sheet # 12 for additional information.)
The RCA 2014 calls for greater transparency and accessibility to supporting documentation for IAI rent increases. The DHCR lease rider (RA-LR1) and the Notice of Apartment Deregulation Pursuant to High Rent Vacancy (HRVD-N) require owners to provide detailed IAI cost explanations and the Rider gives tenants an option to request more detailed supporting documentation from the owner, in a lawfully prescribed manner. It also provides that an IAI rent increase cannot be collected, if its collection commenced after the effective date of a DHCR rent reduction order. It becomes collectible on the effective date of a DHCR rent restoration order. (See Fact Sheets # 2, # 12,
# 35 and # 36.)"

It seems that there would be some record of this in some form or another at DHCR and one could obtain it either by examining the rental history, or perhaps by a FOIL request?


From the WSJ regarding the new deregulation statutes
(http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-re ... 1437095234)

"But the wording in the new law, the Rent Act of 2015, appears to allow apartments to be deregulated only if the previous tenant’s rent reached the threshold, Mr. Bailey and tenant lawyers said.

Under this interpretation, even if the new renter paid more than $2,700, the apartment would still be regulated for as long as that new tenant stayed there. Only the next tenant would be market rate—unless the rent threshold also went up in the meantime.
At issue in the 73-page law, which extends regulation for four years, is the meaning of a few instances of the word “was.”

The previous rent law, adopted in 2011, applied the high-rent threshold to an apartment’s “legal regulated rent” at any time.

The text of the new law refers to a legal regulated rent that “was” more than the threshold at any time, suggesting that it may have been looking back to the previous tenant’s rent."
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Re: Possible to request copy of IAI filing for you apartment

Postby TenantNet » Fri May 06, 2016 8:03 am

Yes, it's insane, but that's how it works. But if a tenant files a complaint objecting to the increase, at that point the LL has to justify it with records - bills, checks, etc.

Yes, there's some info that should be written into the DHCR rider, but that rarely happens, and it's not that useful. Deregulation notice? Again, very rare that is used.
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Re: Possible to request copy of IAI filing for you apartment

Postby TenantNet » Fri May 06, 2016 10:53 am

Brand new on DHCR's web site is a new IAI bulletin.
http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/OperationalB ... o20161.pdf

I haven't read it.

Who can give us a summary of what's in it?
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